Chronicles of the Fall: Insanity on the Loose
by midori Haru
Summary: Sometimes minding your own business and being generous with others simply isn't enough to stay out of trouble. Or could trouble be experiencing the biggest hunting spree of all?
1. Miner's Delight

And I'm back, HA! and you all thought I died or something didn't you? Well I'm still alive! despite the best efforts of my employers and rotten customers over the nightmare that is Thanksgiving weekend in retail. That's right! you losers couldn't kill me no matter how hard you tried! Buahahahahaha!

Boy have I missed being able to rant. I friggin' live for these things. Why? Because I can put it out there with bribe of a brand new chapter and you poor suckers are forced to either read it or scroll down through it. And thus satisfy my evil whim to be as annoying as humanly possible. You got yours by being stupid customers whenever you go shopping, now I get mine for having to put up with stupid customers. It's a fair trade I think.

I kind of toyed with the idea of whether or not to post this today... I haven't quite finished up the last chapter yet, but I've typed it all the way up to where I've written and the chapter will probably be a short one. But I figured you all were tired of waiting, or I've already lost you completely. So I went ahead and posted. Hopefully I'll finish it up real fast and get started on the part after this one. The nxt part whould write relatively quick since I know pretty much exactly how I want to write it and it's a very active part of the story. Actually it's the biggest, most important part of the story. (Unless you prfer the fun parts, then that would be the last part of the story.) Any body feeling a little confused about the order of things? Let me know if you want me to post my outline on my profile page. I've offered before, but sometime i think nobody notices becuase they don't rad the authors notes at all... Shame on you, you miss so many oppurtunities that way. heehee.

On the school front, I have not yet received my scores for the Chemistry GRE that I took Nov 4th, but I have registered for the general GRE and will be taking it Dec. 13th. Despite it's being on a WEdnesday and all, it shouldn't interrupt my posting schedule so long as the plot itself doesn't decide to throw a monkey wrench into the works. (it does that every now and then. Damn tricky plot.)

Ahem, and now I would simply like to dispell any and all rumors before they start. I did not Kidnap rumiko Takahashi. I am not keeping her locked up in our unfinihed basement until she finally signs over all the more interesting inuyasha characters. And you will not be hearing about her disappearance any time in the near future. La di da di da, hum hum...

**Miner's Delight**

Massively bad days do not often occur in multiples. That is to say that the rule of threes does not really apply to bad days. They do not happen consecutively. The residual feelings from a bad may carry over upon occasion, but usually the day after a bad day is pretty bland all things considered.

Unless you just happen to have Aki's luck, then bad days occur in strings of time that like to clump together like used kitty litter that are just as disgusting and smelly.

She just couldn't believe her predicament, truth be told. All the seriously dangerous altercations should be out of the way already (excepting the one with Naraku.)

The shards were all collected for the most part. All the lesser youkai that had managed to find one or two had already been dealt with and now the great hunt for the evil hanyou was on.

Or at least that's what Inuyasha and company was busy with right now. Aki wasn't convinced all the shards had been found, so she chose to head to an area of Japan she had yet to search herself.

Thus she had found herself making a somewhat scenic tour of Hokkaido. She couldn't think of anywhere else they had likely avoided going. After all, who wants to search for trouble and shards in a practically frozen landscape? Sure, Hokkaido wasn't covered in snow year round, but it sure tried really hard to stay that way. Plus the island offered a greater change of scenery and she enjoyed spotting the wildlife during the breaks her constantly complaining friend insisted she take.

Fred was convinced that he was allergic to cold weather, and he insisted that death didn't really change that. He'd hated cold weather when he was alive and he apparently hated for Aki to be subjected to it while he was dead. Something about watching her shiver in the chilly breezes that went by seemed to always set him off.

Aki hadn't minded the cooler weather. It wasn't like she had wanted to play in the water, and their travels had been remarkably free of precipitation in any form. It was altogether a rather pleasant trip up until they were on their way back to the well.

Right before they would have crossed over to the big island, Aki was accosted by a mole youkai for seemingly no reason. Not only did he attack her completely out of the blue with out provocation, but he'd brought his two kids along to watch the show.

Kids, as a rule, are highly impressionable and Aki hated to think what seeing their dad beaten to a groveling mess would do to his children. And as Aki was really against violence of most any kind, especially when it would affect some small life in an adverse way, tried really hard not to hurt the shorter youkai.

She really shouldn't have. If she hadn't been trying so hard not to hurt the runty bastard he never would've gotten the drop on her. Still she was convinced she could somehow get herself out of the problem even as Fred took off to find her some help. She had managed to do so this far along, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Her confidence quickly left her when she found out the special weapons nature had gifted her mole youkai with. It made Aki want to track the bitch down and tear her hair out by the roots.

Seriously, it was turning out that all the overtly predatory youkai were pushovers in comparison to nature's idea of prey. Case in point, Rabbit youkai have the ability effect their environment so drastically as to leave a commonly powerful predator incapable of doing anything, which was a great defense mechanism to be sure. But in the right situation it was highly unfair in the hands of someone really good at turning the most benign of things into a weapon.

So it was with the mole youkai. Only the defense was different. Mole youkai, like their animal counterparts, spent a great deal of timing digging underground. Now there is some argument on whether their digging is what lead to the discovery of the special ore they use to protect themselves or if the ore is the reason they dig so much in the first place, but there is no dispute that they have used this rare and special ore very much to their benefit. The raw ore is a special material that has a natural affinity for all types of energy that is only focused and intensified through the special methods of carving it into the useful tools moles have used since they began mining it beyond the knowledge of history.

They make it into to tools and jewelry and beads to fulfill a specific purpose. Sometimes the purpose is protection or waterproofing and upon occasion, small-refined pieces of the ore are traded away for whatever the moles cannot provide for themselves.

This particular mole had taken some of these very precious beads and chosen to use them on Aki. Each of her limbs was cuffed securely with a magical bracelet be spelled to make her nothing more than a mute doll for him and his kids to play with. A set of Shikon shards apparently 'given' to the mole were used to reinforce the magic that forced her limbs to follow every order she was given and nothing more.

For once in her life Aki was forced to do as she was told exactly how she was told. He told her to jump; she did without asking how high. The kids wanted her to dress up like a porcelain doll with a painted face, well…

And she hated it. The clothes they made her wear were too short. The make up itched constantly. Her head hurt from the little monsters pulling and playing with her hair. She was reduced to a babysitter who didn't have the privilege of the word "no".

Everyday was another lesson in torment. Her body yearned for the food she was never able to eat. Aki's brain begged for sleep she hadn't the luxury for without an order. And her hopes of someone coming to her aid were dashed when the weather took a turn for the extreme worst as snow began to fall in deadly swirls.

Not that she had really had a great deal of hope for it happening to begin with. Fred as a ghost was slower than most snails and he was limited in who he could approach by the rampant paranoia of the age.

Aki didn't have a clue where any of the few people he could implore to help her were. Inuyasha and Kagome were wandering around somewhere in Japan, hunting for Naraku. Kikyou always was a wanderer with even less predictable direction then the shard hunters and Sesshoumaru… Kaede and Hanako would be easy to find, but they were halfway across the big Island from here and that left her no chance of breaking free until sometime next month at Fred's rate of travel.

Actually, she wasn't really sure how long it would take him to get to Kaede's, which was fine since she couldn't be sure of the passage of time anyway. She lived barely aware of what happened around her so she couldn't be sure of the progress of time from day to night, only of the steady increase of her own fatigue, the growing ache of her hunger. She felt as if her head were wrapped in cotton, muting the signals to her brain. Certain sensations sliced through the fuzz with ease while others almost failed to register over the clamor of her thoughts inside her head.

And there were a lot of thoughts.

During the times when her tormentors left her alone, she assumed while they slept, and she had the relative peace of guard duty, Aki would try to organize the mess. Sometimes she would manage to quiet the din and slip into a quiet meditative state. Most of the time, however, she failed miserably and only succeeded in finding new things to annoy her. She would have been moved to violence more than once, if her stupid restraints hadn't forced her to hold it in.

And that was if she was lucky…A rather annoying song got stuck in her head for hours, the lyrics bouncing around her skull fast enough to kill any attempts to slow it down on contact. Aki would have given anything for her curse to rear its ugly head right then. On the plus side, it cleared her head of a lot of other thoughts.

Occasionally, Aki was allowed to assume a bit more connection with the outside world when the little girl mole would demand a conversation. Usually it happened in the daytime, but sometimes, after a nightmare, the child would demand Aki talk with her in the middle of the night.

Aki would learn a lot from the talkative and somewhat neglected child.

The poor child was as often as not left out of her father and brother's enthusiasm for some of the things they'd decide the family should do. She wasn't that interested in tunnel construction or trapping small animals for dinner. Actually, the little mole wasn't really interested in much of anything.

Aki learned that the mole Youkai's two children had been part of a much larger set. Originally there had been four mole children, but a mysterious evil youkai, that Aki recognized as Naraku from the description, had attacked them, killing off two of the kids and their mother very recently. Naraku had then ordered the mole to find and subdue Aki to turn over to him. He'd given the mole the five small Shikon shards that insured Aki couldn't break free on her own.

Aki was just ecstatic to find out the adult mole youkai was far too smart to carry out Naraku's commands to the letter. He was under no illusions as to what would happen to him and his family once he turned her over to the evil bastard. So, since Naraku wouldn't come after her himself, the mole had decided to keep Aki and force her to protect his family.

Aki tried hard never to bring that subject up again. She couldn't trust herself not to throw a fit and ruin her small periods of semi-freedom. It irked her that she was forced to be a puppet to people she would've helped protect anyway had they bothered to ask.

The rampant paranoia of the feudal era really didn't make sense. Yes, there were people who would take advantage of you. True, there was a lot of violence, thievery, and treachery, but none of that was going to get better until people start banding together against the chaotic element. And that can't happen if nobody is willing to take the chance to trust someone else.

Unfortunately, history proved more than once that unification can be achieved another way, a violent bloody way. Aki was pretty sure that's the way things were heading; she was a little fuzzy on her Japanese history though.

At this point she was finding herself a bit fuzzy on just about everything because of all the circular thinking she'd been doing. Without the ability to say things out loud she couldn't tell if they sounded right or not, and the moles didn't care much to allow Aki the opportunity for such semi-serious talk that had no bearing on anything the little youkai wanted to talk about.

So her poor brain felt inundated by useless information, no sleep, and bottled, pressurized emotions. She was very ready for _some_thing to happen.

And then, something did. Aki was now certain life, fate, and the universe had decided there was nothing more entertaining than screwing with her life.

Kagome had sensed a surprisingly large quantity of Shikon no Kakera and had been forced to lead the group towards them without rest. Inuyasha wanted this damn quest over already and, despite Kagome's reservations, was convinced they were headed towards Naraku's hide out.

Imagine how stunned the group was to stumble upon three mole youkai and a strangely dressed Aki instead of any of the evil hanyou's agents.

Aki let loose a long string of multilingual curses in her head when she perceived the shock on their collective faces. They obviously weren't here to help her out, which could only mean bad things in her near future.

"What are you doing here Aki?" Shippou asked curiously before the moles could get over their shock.

"Aki has the shards," Kagome told the group. "There's one on each limb and one on her neck," the human teenager blinked. Aki had never stored them that way before. What's more, she still hadn't answered Shippou's question and Aki had never before ignored the boy's questions.

"What are you just standing there for? Defend us," the mole father yelled at the stationary Aki puppet.

"Hey, don't yell at her like that!" Shippou hollered at the mole. "Aki wouldn't fight us just because you're stupid!"

The mole's son turned purple in rage. Nobody called his father names! "Shut him up!" he yelled at the top of his lungs and Aki lunged awkwardly toward the kit.

Aki strained herself pulling as much speed and strength from the move as she could. Luckily Shippou jumped out of the way at the last minute.

"Eep!" Shippou squeaked and leapt to Kagome's shoulder in Fright.

"Aki, what are you doing?" Kagome demanded.

"She does what we tell her," the adult youkai laughed, feeling superior and very sure of his awesome plan to protect himself and his family.

"Let her go!" Inuyasha growled and launched himself at the mole, sword drawn with intent to do him bodily harm.

Suddenly Aki was in the way and the hanyou was forced to pull back or do her serious harm. As it was he still drew blood.

"Stop it Inuyasha!" Sango yelled when Inuyasha made to attack again.

"What is it Sango?" Kagome inquired.

"Mole youkai are not particularly strong when it comes to fighting, but their magic is incredibly strong when used in conjunction with the ore they dig. Aki is under their spell; any move we make to harm them will wind up with Aki as the victim."

"Shouldn't she be able to break free of it on her own?" Kagome asked. "She's very powerful on her own."

"I suspect they used the jewel shards to reinforce the spell," Miroku answered.

"So what do we do?" Kagome asked.

"WE break her out of it!" Inuyasha declared like there was nothing to it.

"How?" Kagome demanded the stupid dog boy answer that one. It was just like him to ignore the important details.

"Fight them!" the mole youkai ordered Aki.

She attacked the group, forcing them to scatter before her in order to avoid injury.

"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Kagome cried desperately before Aki changed targets to strike at Miroku.

The monk blocked her repeatedly with his staff, gritting his teeth with effort. Aki shoved him back a step with every impact. "Any ideas?" he all but pleaded an answer from the rest of the group.

"Break the strings of beads," Shippou suggested, having spotted them while hiding in the branches of a tree.

"It might work," Sango said as it became her turn to suffer Aki's powerful onslaught. "But I don't think it will be that easy."

"Keh," Inuyasha scoffed and went from defending against Aki to attacking her with his bare claws. He'd have to get close enough to snag the beads, but he didn't want to risk damaging her overly much in the process, so using Tessaiga was out of the question.

The fight grew more intense as the combatants continued to exchange blows, though only Inuyasha appeared to be causing any damage.

The hanyou leapt back, studying Aki's movements. Her blank eyes bore through as she watched him. The former tutor's movements were stilted as though her body fought to move…or fought not to move. Aki was still in there and fighting against the spell for his sake and Inuyasha had a moment to feel guilty about hurting her.

"You're not fighting right," the boy youkai whined petulantly. Inuyasha was certain he hated this kid. "You're supposed to call out your moves as you do them. Don't you know anything?" The brat grumbled at Aki causing her to stop in her slow advance on her target.

"Shut up, Youta!" his sister hissed at him in annoyance. "We obviously don't have time for such stupid details!"

"Shut up yourself Yumi! It's a very important part of a fight!" Youta told his sister with a roll of his eyes.

"It's stupid!" Yumi declared.

"Is not," Youta insisted.

"Is too!" Yumi argued.

"Is not!" her brother returned. "I bet if she did it right she could fertilize the trees with those bad guys."

"Telling your enemy what you're doing won't make you fight any better stupid!" she retorted.

"Dad, she called me stupid!"

"Because you are, Moron!"

"No I'm not, and I'll prove it!" the angry little mole shouted in response, completely ignoring the combatants who had stared openly at the two children squabbling over inanities in the middle of such a serious fight. "Fight right!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and returned his attention to Aki just in time to see the humor faid from her eyes. He didn't imagine being locked inside your own head was healthy. At the very least it had to be very unpleasant.

After all, what was inside your head, but thoughts of all your fears and pain, memories of sadness and broken dreams. They were always so much more potent than unsustained moment of happiness when you're alone as only one trapped and conscious in one's mind could be.

Inuyasha almost shuddered at the though. Sometimes it was no picnic to be locked in your head when were unconscious, especially with Naraku about.

Aki stalked to within arms reach of Inuyasha and said, "Punch" just before her fist flew through the air and landed on the hanyou's very startled face.

The shard hunters tried to stifle their laughter by focusing on the seriousness of the situation.

Aki shouted, "Kick!" and planted her foot in Inuyasha's shocked body.

"Inuyasha wake up!" Kagome called to the dog boy. "Aki will really hate you if you let her mop the floor with your stupid body!"

The hanyou growled in anger. "Shut up!" he bellowed as he caught Aki's right fist. "If you think you can do better why don't you fight her!"

"Kagome can't sustain as much damage as you Inuyasha," Miroku pointed out. "So long as we do not move close to the moles, Aki focuses on you because you will best survive it."

"Smack!" Aki said.

Inuyasha snarled as he answered the monk, "I know that stupid."

"Why don't you pay attention to what's going on? Aki's telling you what to expect!" Kagome pointed out. "Why are you still allowing her to hit you?"

"Because Inuyasha does not have much of a defense," Miroku declared.

"Inuyasha's style has always leaned more towards aggressive attacks and lots of noise rather than developing any real defense," Sango observed.

"Yeah," Shippou joined in, "That's probably why Inuyasha gets hurt so much all the time."

Sango and Miroku nodded in agreement.

"Really?" Kagome pondered. "That would explain a lot, like the time Sesshoumaru stuck his hand through Inuyasha."

"Hey! We're still fighting here!" Inuyasha growled, annoyed that all his friends had pulled aside to discuss his so-called failings of martial skill. He was absolutely perfect. They were the ones who were all screwed up.

"Cart wheel!" Aki yelled as she went through the movement to bring her foot down on the back of the distracted hanyou's head.

"I told you it was a stupid idea!" Yumi yelled at her brother.

"It is not! She's just not doing it right!" Youta hollered. "She's supposed to have attack names for her special attacks and stuff."

"Well what kind of moron would name their special attacks and shout it at their enemy _every_ time they use it? Calling an incantation to make it happen is one thing, yelling out the name of the weapon you're using is fine too, but continually telling people what you are doing is stupid!"

"You don't know anything!" Youta shouted back at his sister. Then he turned to Aki and yelled, "Do it right!"

"But Aki never uses special attacks," Shippou though aloud. "And when she works her magic she always mumbles things so we can't hear. Does he expect her to just name things because he wants her to?"

"You underestimate the power of the mole's spell," Sango pointed out.

"Still, what kind of names could she come up with on the spur of the moment? Especially when she's so encumbered by this spell?" Miroku wondered aloud.

In the next moment they were doomed to find out. Aki had been hungry for days and she had found her thoughts spiraling around this one bodily need, so it didn't surprise her when the first the she thought of was food. "Chef Boyardee flying ravioli kick!"

Kagome lost the battle with her laughter. She didn't have a chance. Even Sango and Miroku found it funny and they didn't' even know what ravioli was.

"S'more a la fist throw!" had Shippou cracking up in spite of himself. Inuyasha almost forgot to duck in his consternation.

Aki prayed they realized how much all this nonsense was costing her. It hurt to pull her punches. Her muscles screamed in protest when she slowed her attacks. When this was over her poor body was going to be one big ache.

"See?" Yumi grinned in triumph. "Even the bad guys realize how stupid it is."

"Stop being silly!" Youta bellowed.

Aki could have sighed, the child was so demanding. Thank goodness there were more words than 'silly' to work with. 'How about ridiculous?' she thought to herself. "Leaping Lizard pummel!" she announced with a flourish of movement.

That did it for Sango and Miroku, who had made a good show of reining in their laughter. Even Kirara appeared to laugh at that one. The words coupled with Aki leaping through the air to clobber Inuyasha to the ground just demanded it.

"Would you guys focus on the problem here?" the hanyou demanded angrily. He was getting tired of them laughing while he got his ass handed to him. "She's still under their spell thingie if you'd care to remember!"

His out burst managed to sober all of them up, at least until Aki yelled out her next attack.

"Crouching Tiger, lunging Squirrel!" She hollered and then proceeded to attack Inuyasha with old leaves and nuts from the forest floor.

"You can't tell me you didn't find that funny," Kagome gasped out between giggles. "Oh! You should see your face!" and her laughter doubled in intensity.

Inuyasha, when he's angry or frustrated has always had anger management issues. He tends to be more violent than he might otherwise prefer and the hanyou was certainly getting frustrated and a little angry with his rotten friends. He was getting beat up, Aki was under a spell and Kag-er his friends were all laughing. It was enough to piss almost anyone off, even if they weren't likely to turn all homicidal.

But Inuyasha had homicidal tendencies and he was growing very Angry and frustrated. Without thinking much about what he was doing, the hanyou attacked the nearest person to him, who just happened to be a poor ensorcelled Aki.

The unfortunate female was thrown back from his blow into a tree, which crashed to the ground on impact. Aki couldn't breath around the sudden pain that exploded through her body. The cost of being nice was starting to accumulate a little too quickly.

Inuyasha stared in horror at what he had done. How could he have hurt his sister? He was supposed to protect her. Perhaps he would never be able to have a gentle relationship with anyone that fit into the roll of sibling. The great namelessness knew he couldn't keep from trying to kill his half sibling.

Oh shit! What if Sesshoumaru found out?

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried in horror and watched as the hanyou's ears drooped. She didn't bother to say anything else. Inuyasha was apparently beating himself up about this turn of events already. Perhaps he would finally admit he had a problem and work towards bettering himself. Kagome rolled her eyes, like _that_ would ever happen!

Nobody else said anything. They were all waiting to see if Aki could pull herself up off the ground. Thought some already knew it was a foregone conclusion. Aki couldn't be kept down unless she was dead, and Inuyasha hadn't hit her that hard…


	2. Supplemental Insurance

Wednesday! hurray hurray!! I was waiting for this, and you were too.

wow, Three whole reviews for one chapter... I feel so loved! seriously, i hadn't thought the first chapter was all that awesome. Just kidding!

One of my reviewers asked where the heck I got "Chef Boyardee Flying Ravioli kick" and some of my other more entertaining moments that are just so far out in left field as to be impossible to see them coming. Well that's simple. There is a box, that hides out in this pocket that is stuck in Ammo space which is located in the guns you find in gun space which is to the left of hammer space. Hammer space, which is right above grill space, because Ukyo from ranma had to have someplace she stashed her portable grill in, Grill space is under hammer space as I said, which is to the right of food space and under that space where anime characters keep their innumerable matching and identicle outfits that they wear for the entirety of a single season of anime. Is everybody confused? Good, because all of this has absolutely nothing to do with where my awesomely weird Ideas come from.

see, I get my freeze dried special brand inspiration from the designer store I get my brand canned insanity from and my fresh sarcasm, because Fresh is soo much better than canned. Sorry you asked, huh?

Now back to our regularly scheduled rant. Don't you just hate the morons on the road that insist on breaking the law? And I don't mean just speeding, I mean the morons that make illegal U-turns on the highway after dark and across your lane because they were too stupid to catch their exit and they were too impatient to drive the handful of minutes down the road to the next exit to turn around. Where the hell was the law enforcement then, I ask you? It happened to me twice in two days! what the hell? And worst of all, the first time was after dark, after my shift, around midnight, on really rotten roads. And I mean really rotten, radio was reporting accidents all over the place, bad roads. I almost wanted to hit the gas and plow into them to just show them why it's illegal. (I didn't of course, I have an exceedingly healthy aversion to pain, especially mine and that of my bank account. My poor car wouldn't have liked it very much either.) but seriously, is it so hard to follow the rules? Especially rules that make a lot of sense?

I wonder if Rumiko Takathashi makes illegal u-turns when she's driving her characters around. I know I would if I had both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru and Naraku in the same car. And I wouldn't even bother to make sure we didn't wind up in a fatal accident. Seriuosly, can you imagine _that_ trio in a car?

**Supplemental Insurance**

Inuyasha's most recent worst nightmare was about to come true too fast for him to defend against it. The fates were proving to be just as unkind to him as they tended to be with anyone else. They were a great bunch of sadistic bastards whenever the given the opportunity. And all because Fred had been sent on a mission.

Fred had somehow managed to find the cavalry despite his extremely slow speed. He still couldn't figure out how he had managed to be so lucky as to find help for Aki as quickly as he did when it had taken him nearly a week _just _to cross over to the big island.

Once he had reached land he couldn't count the number of strangers that felt the need to flee before his ghostly might. It was damned annoying and quite solidly punched in the point that his options were greatly limited in seeking aid.

And to make matters worse he was finding that the farther he moved away from his anchor the harder it was to continue and the slower he seemed to go. The task of find Aki a rescue team was mounting into an impossible undertaking.

Fred was cursing up a storm and seriously debating turning around and trying to save his best friend without back up when a miracle happened…

Kikyou overheard him.

Kikyou had resumed her directionless wandering after being completely ditched by Aki sometime back. Occasionally she would find a place to stay for a small space of time or she would find some project to catch her listless thoughts, but normally she just felt the call to move about.

Often she would think about Aki and wonder how the strange youkai was doing and if she'd managed to shake off that lusty ghost. Sometimes her thoughts would warm her broken soul and fill her eyes with mild amusement. Other times she just wanted to see if she couldn't eradicate the ghost without having to touch him.

But when she stumbled upon Fred fretting at the air around him and no Aki within sensing distance, she knew there was serious trouble to be overcome.

She wasn't wrong. In fact Aki had gotten herself into more trouble than Kikyou could see a way out of without some serious power in their court. In Kikyou's opinion, serious power on their side equated with the taiyoukai that had once been mated to the female in danger.

Luck was with them, Sesshoumaru was within sensing distance, and with Kikyou helping him, Fred caught up with him in less than an hour. Ten minutes later, Sesshoumaru was out of sight and the rest of the party followed slowly after.

On the one hand it was lucky Fred had found aid at all so quickly. On the other, Inuyasha really could have lived without Sesshoumaru's fist miraculously planting in his face out of nowhere.

Aki climbed to her feet and leapt back as Sesshoumaru came to a stop right next to where she had fallen.

"Whoa!" Yumi yelped as the taiyoukai seemed to materialize out of thin air.

"Aw yeah! Now we'll see a real fight!" Youta yelled in delight.

"What do you mean 'real fight'? What was all that before?" Shippou demanded angrily.

"A fight with a hanyou is baby stuff," Youta scoffed.

Shippou growled and attempted to leap from Kagome's arms at the mole brat, but Kagome refused to let go.

"No Shippou!" Kagome tugged him closer. "Aki would hate it if she was forced to hurt you!"

Sesshoumaru glared at her for an explanation and she cursed under her breath. She really was spending too much time around the dog boy of her heart.

"The lady is not acting under her own volition," Miroku told the taiyoukai.

Aki leapt at her new opponent shouting yet another ridiculous attack name as the inu youkai easily avoided her.

"No! No! No!" Youta stomped his foot to punctuate each word. "You're still doing it wrong!"

Aki pulled up short and stared blankly at Sesshoumaru as the boy threw a fit.

"Why can't you do it right?" Youta demanded. "You can't be that stupid!"

"Don't call her stupid because of your dumb idea!" Yumi shouted over Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's angry growls.

"My idea was not dumb!"

"Enough!" their father yelled over the racket. "This is not a game! You!" he glared at his waiting puppet. "You will fight them seriously and you two will knock it off, NOW!"

Aki immediately launched herself at the inu brothers, separating them as both evaded her attack. She started to focus more on Sesshoumaru who had been driven closer to the family of mole youkai. Punches and kicks flew at him in quick succession, forcing him away from the moles as he blocked and deflected each move she made.

"Quite holding back and hit him already!" the mole yelled.

Aki was forced to speed up and land a blow in Sesshoumaru's gut that knocked the wind from him.

Sesshoumaru quirked an eyebrow at her in the realization that she was still fighting with the mole. Aki could do him serious damage if she put her mind to it, but she was still holding back from combining her speed with her strength to increase the impact of both. She was using all of her speed and all of her strength, true, but not together like he knew she could. She would do no harm if she had anything to say about it.

Which she didn't for much longer, the mole wasn't stupid. He knew something was suspicious if the taiyoukai wasn't attacking or bleeding. Hell, the hanyou wasn't bleeding either. If Naraku had cause to want this female, then she was more capable of fighting than his eyes were suggesting. The wench was still holding back, but he could fix that!

"Come here!' the puppeteer ordered Aki away from the taiyoukai threat. He pulled out some hidden weapon with an edge on it and firmly placed it in her hand. Then the mole pointed back towards the group of interlopers and said one word as he stared directly into her eyes. "Kill!"

"Oh shit!" Inuyasha swore. This was bad. There was no doubt in his mind that Aki could actually massacre all of them if she put her mind to it, but that wasn't what worried him the most. He worried about how Aki would react to killing someone. She kind of had a bad view of death, fighting, and her being the cause of it. This couldn't be good.

"You great big Coward!" Shippou managed to holler from Kagome's shoulder despite his ever-growing fear.

"What did you call my dad?" Youta demanded angrily as Aki took her first step forward.

"He's a coward! And so are you! Why else would you force Aki to do it for you?" Shippou yelled back as Aki continued to approach them. Kagome and the other humans were drawing back, their trepidation getting the better of them.

Aki came to a stop two feet away from Sesshoumaru who remained the one closest to the mole family besides her. Her blank eyes seemed to see right through him, though he knew this was a false impression.

The weapon flew back over her head as she swung it around in preparation to strike. One tense breath found its home in the time just before the sharp edge of the weapon soared through the air and down across her opposite wrist, slicing it open and filling the forest with the scent of Aki's blood.

"Release!" Yumi screamed. "Spell release! Let her go!" The child rounded on her father angrily. "You swore she wouldn't die! You promised nobody I cared about would ever die again! You lied!" She shoved her father to run over to where Aki had fallen only to be warned off by the taiyoukai holding the partial youkai's bleeding wrist.

Aki whipped around to shoot a blast of miko power past the young mole youkai and into the evil Naraku puppet crouching in the tree above and behind the mole family. The threat disintegrated into so much ash to carry away on the cool wind.

A tug on her wrist brought Aki's attention back to the self-inflicted wound. Sesshoumaru glared at her as he held her arm up and kept his fingers pressing on the deep cut. She released a small amount of miko power into the tip of her finger and caught his eyes with hers. She pointedly glanced from her glowing finger to her bloody wrist.

Sesshoumaru got the gist of what she was trying to convey and slowly lifted his fingers carefully to reveal the ruptured skin. She dragged her finger smoothly across the lips of the wound. The holy power burned along her skin, cauterizing the wound before she could lose more blood.

Aki gave him a brief reassuring smile before her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out, slumping forward against Sesshoumaru's chest.

"You stupid git!" the mole youkai was yelling at Yumi over the noise of a gleeful Shippou fighting the obnoxious Youta.

"Shippou, stop that!" Kagome yelled, trying to break up the ruckus.

"You wouldn't want his stupidity to spill over on you," Inuyasha laughed. "It must be contagious since his dad is just as stupid."

"What did you say?" Youta demanded, shaking in all his enraged mole-y might.

"What are you deaf as well as stupid?" Shippou teased. "Or are you too stupid to understand what he said?"

"Shippou that's enough!" Kagome scolded. "Inuyasha, you're not helping."

"Keh," Inuyasha turned to Youta's father, who was still berating his daughter.

Sango and Miroku watch father and daughter argue in bemusement. The pair of youkai did realize they were in imminent danger at that particular moment, right?

"You shouldn't have released the spell," the mole youkai hollered in anger.

"No, you shouldn't have cast the spell in the first place," Inuyasha growled angrily.

"You'd rather I'd given her over to Naraku, I suppose," the mole grunted in return.

"Is that why you attacked Aki?" Sango asked sternly.

Sesshoumaru picked up Aki and cradled her to his body. The noise was getting on his last nerve and he was finding it difficult to maintain his control. He wanted to do bodily harm to the low life responsible for forcing Aki to the point where she would threaten her own life to break free.

"Silence," he roared over the sounds ringing through his ears. Sesshoumaru glared at them from his full height angrily. All sound and movement had stopped at the powerful order.

And then Kikyou was hurrying into view headed straight for Aki. The dead miko checked the unconscious female for injury, ignoring the growl Sesshoumaru sent her way. Being a non-living individual with extra abilities, it was hard for her to take verbal threats of any kind seriously.

"All right, what'd I miss?" Fred demanded as he appeared right next to the growling youkai holding his unconscious friend.

"Apparently, Aki has broken free, though she seems to have sustained some damage," Kikyou observed.

Fred turned to the confused on-lookers and the mole youkai in various stages of apprehension. "Anybody care to explain?"

"The moles put Aki under a spell and ordered her to attack us when we got here," Shippou started. "Aki tried to fight the spell while the rest of us just defended ourselves until those dummies," the kit pointed at the other children, "started making it difficult for her. Then Inuyasha stupidly hit Aki."

"Hey! you could have left that part out!" the hanyou protested.

"I don't see how," Miroku shrugged. "You knocked over a tree, which is kind of hard to miss considering how recent it happened."

"You would have needed to explain the broken and cracked ribs either way," Kikyou announced and Inuyasha ducked his head in shame.

"I noticed that wasn't what broke the spell," Fred commented drolly.

"Then Sesshoumaru got here and the mole youkai upped the ante," Kagome continued for Shippou. "He's the one who gave Aki the weapon she cut herself with causing the little girl to release the spell."

"Which she shouldn't have done!" said mole youkai made to grab at his daughter. Inuyasha bashed him on the head with his fist.

"You had best thank her," Miroku suggested. "Because if Yumi hadn't set Aki free right then Naraku's doppelganger would have killed you and your children."

"That's true," Sango nodded as the slightly abused parent turned white as the blood drained from his face. "He _had_ told Aki to kill in the opposite direction. If Aki hadn't been free to take him out it's very likely nobody would have taken it out in time."

Kagome shook her head at the conversation as she handed Kikyou a roll of bandages from her pack to wrap Aki's ribs with. "I think the worst thing about this situation is that Aki would have helped them against Naraku if they had simply asked," the teenager observed sadly as the miko continued to tend Aki's injuries with Sesshoumaru's presence looming over her.

He wouldn't let Aki go, which made their efforts difficult. It didn't matter to Sesshoumaru. His instincts were riding close to the surface and desperate to combat the memory of Aki's blood staining his fingers with the reality of her being truly alive.

His control was fraying and he was just barely keeping from using drastic measures to reassure himself of Aki's continued life. The only things helping him at the moment was the fact she was breathing even and steady and her warmth had not diminished dangerously.

"Yes Aki would have offered her aid," Miroku nodded thoughtfully.

"Don't be absurd!" the mole youkai laughed. "No youkai would just help someone they don't know without demanding something impossible in return."

"That's not true!" Shippou yelled. "Even Inuyasha would have helped if it meant fighting Naraku!"

"Aki is in the habit of helping others," Sango said in observation. "Most often her solutions don't even require violence."

"You can't just talk Naraku out of hurting people," Shippou pointed out.

"No, but you can hide from the bastard," Fred murmured while still studying his unconscious friend. "Could move them somewhere that we'd pass by often to add the extra insurance of readily available aid coming to the rescue." The ghost reached out to poke his phantom finger through Aki's forehead.

"Fred, what are you doing?" Kagome demanded as Aki's features scrunched up in unconscious discomfort.

"Aki pulled me into her dream once, I'm trying to see if I can enter one without her help," he answered.

"Why?" Shippou asked curiously.

"Because I'm too impatient to wait for her to wake up before learning if she's okay," the ghost muttered.

"Didn't Kikyou's examination tell you that?" The boy demanded even as Kirara nudged him to be quiet.

Fed shared a glance with the miko in question. "There are some hurts that a person can't find just by looking for physical wounds," Kagome explained. "You hurt when you think of your parents' death even though you aren't wounded on the outside, right?"

The ghost shook his head, "It's worse than that. Aki doesn't do very well alone, and I've been gone for help a little over a week."

"You worry her fears and enchanted state will have had a detrimental effect on her mind," Kikyou conjectured blandly.

"She's already been to the brink once, I'd rather she didn't get that close to breaking down ever again," Fred shook his head. "So I want to check on her," he mumbled as he tried again and failed.

"Try it when you're invisible," Kikyou suggested.

Fred disappeared from view.

"Do you think it'll work?" Shippou asked the general group.

"We're sure to find out soon enough," Sango shrugged and hit the adult mole youkai on the head when he tried to sneak off. "You stay put, we haven't decided what to do with you guys yet."

"Kill them so I can beat the shit out of them!" Fred snarled harshly. "And make their deaths slow and painful!"

"Fred!" Kagome gasped. "What's wrong?"

The ghost ruthlessly dampened his anger and glanced at the youkai cradling Aki like a precious treasure. "Talk to her, growl at her, prick her with your claws, I don't care how you do it, but make sure she knows you're there. Reassure her that the spell truly has been broken. Just make sureshe knows she's not alone," Fred was visibly restraining himself from some great useless gesture. "Don't worry about waking her up. She hasn't been allowed to sleep since before that damn spell was cast!" He fairly growled out the next sentence, "And she hasn't eaten either! She was almost back to her normal eating habits before this started!" he glared at the moles. "You locked her in her head to starve and go crazy with her fears and lack of sleep!"

"What are you talking about?" Youta demanded in total confusion.

"When did you tell her to eat and sleep?" Fred glared at the brat.

"She's a grown up! She should be able to take care of herself!" the boy declared sourly.

"She would have been able to had he," here Fred jabbed his ghostly fingers into the face of Youta's father causing the youkai to jump in a mixture of surprise and extreme discomfort. "Had that bastard not be spelled her so that she couldn't move or talk without a direct order!"

Yumi gasped, "I hadn't thought it was as bad as that!"

Fred softened his ire slightly when he directed his gaze at her. "So you just thought a gull grown woman wouldn't mind being treated like a doll you could order around," he snorted.

Yumi blushed in response.

"Somebody kill them so that I can beat the crap out of them!" He demanded again.

"That's enough!" Kikyou yelled over the fuming ghost. " The family of moles will be judged and punished, but it will not be by you. Aki was the victim and she suffered the most for it, so Aki should be the one to hand down their punishment.

"We need to move," Fred declared darkly. "She said it was going to snow."

"How on earth can she tell in her condition?" Kagome glanced at the sky incredulously.

Sesshoumaru strode directly over to the somewhat subdued mole youkai, planted his foot on the back of the dolt's neck and pushed him to the ground. "Take us to the shelter you call home." He knew better than to question Aki's weather predications.

"Don't hurt my dad!" Youta shouted.

Sesshoumaru leveled a glare at the child that promised death.

"I'll show you the way," Yumi squeaked out, mildly terrified for her family.

"Well, what do you know, your family tree really did manage to produce someone slightly intelligent," Fred commented sarcastically.

"Yumi!" He father yelled angrily.

"Oh fine! Next time I'll let them hurt you and Youta!" She grumbled with a roll of her eyes.

"I really wish you would," Inuyasha muttered to the side. "Sesshoumaru might be less likely to beat the rest of us up."

"The only one he's likely to take a piece out of is you, Inuyasha," Kagome pointed out. "None of the rest of us did more than block Aki's attacks."

Inuyasha cringed as the taiyoukai in question threw a threatening look his way. "SHut up! Wench!" he growled to the teenager from the future. If he was lucky, Sesshoumaru would forget about him, but it wouldn't happen if Kagome kept bringing it up.

"Aki will need to be changed back into her own clothes," Fred observed as Miroku and Sango prodded the two male youkai into movement. "It'll be warmer than that short kimono."

"Dad burned those weird things," Youta declared smugly.

"No he didn't," Yumi declared. "None of it would burn so he stuck it in his usual hiding place." She rolled her eyes at the look her father sent her. "Aki said they were protected by the gods."

"Why would she tell you that?" Shippou demanded.

"I asked," Yumi answered.

"More like interrogated her," Inuyasha grumbled.

"That's not true!" Yumi hollered. "She's my friend."

"Oh really?" Fred raised an eyebrow darkly. "And when did you talk about things Aki wanted to talk about? When did she get to ask questions? Never?"

"Shut up!" Yumi yelled defensively.

"What our transparent friend means is simply that friendship cannot be one-sided," Miroku said gently.

"What's Kikyou doing?" Shippou asked as Kagome turned back to watch the miko.

Kikyou caught up with the paused group without explaining her delay. What she did was her business and would be revealed _if_ she felt the need of it.

Fred shrugged her fake air of mystery off and urged the group to hurry up.

Sesshoumaru was fast leaving them behind as he hadn't cared about the miko's doings. His focus was on getting Aki to his destination. Everybody else could fend for themselves, Damnit!


	3. Exploiting Expressions

alright, it's wednesday again and time for you to pay the toll of reading my fanfic...That is, it is time for my weekly rant.

I hate the school system in the U.S. these days. It's like we're teaching the adults of the future how to stay as dumb as possible while painting it with a veneer of basic knowledge. Now I personally don't have kids, but I do have two little brothers, both of whom are demonstarating that which I am most annoyed with. Their troubles lie predominantly in math, and while math is notorious for giving most people trouble, neither has problems with the concept. item of proof one: Whenever they ask for help on a problem I ask them to define what they are looking for. My little brother who is 10 was doing his homework a few weeks ago and reached a word problem that supposedly had him stumped. It asked him to write an expression and then solve for the answer where x equaled 5. He insisted he didn't know what an expression was despite the fact he had solved half a dozen of them just a few problems above that point on the work sheet. It took me half an hour to convince him he knew what an expression was and how to write one. What are these teachers teaching these kids? Certainly not how to use context clues or even to look at all the information given to them.

item of proof two: My other brother who is 12 got stumped on a problem just this week and insisted he couldn't solve it. I made him define what he was looking for, which he did quite easily but still insisted he couldn't answer the question. I got up from what I was doing to take a look and his problem was simply that the text book didn't write out actual numbers, but instead used a "stack of pennies" to represent them and then asked which stacks represented the mean, median and mode. HAven't the teachers taught him that numbers actually mean something? And truly all it was is more of a graphical representation. Have they not taught him how to read a graph?

With this proof of the failings in our own education system, it's no wonder most of the other countries are skunking us in comparison. And this is nothing new. There have been national studies detailing such things. And society does nothing about it, we're too worried about our kids being stressed out or being teased or not having a social life that we don't press them to build the most important tools in life so that we as a society can stand on equal ground with every other society in the world. And all the tests in the world detailing the problems with the system won't fix them.

Seriuosly, just letting these problems slide is setting us up for more of those kinds of people I hate... the kind that skate by with the minimal amount of effort, because they can get away with it. My brother proved to me the other day that he was turning into one of these people and I told him I didn't like people like that. People who won't work for the things they want but complain about where they're at in life. Now I complain a lot, but I am working on getting somewhere different. I'm making the effort and doing what I have to in order to get there. I may hate my job, but I do the work I signed on to do becuase I said I would. And I do it well because how I work is a direct reflection of me. I don't really understand people who don't do the same. In order to take pride in yourself you have to take pride in all the things you do. If you don't like something it is up to you to work to change it, you're not going to wake up one day and find it changed for you.

Maybe I should run for office or something some day... Nah, I'd never stand a chance. I'm too much of a straight shooter. I don't do that double talk nonsense about things that are important, and lord knows everything that a so-called politician is supposedly responsible for is important in the long run of things. It effects too many people not to be.

I wonder what rumiko takahashi would have to say about it all, maybe she'd just vote for Seshsoumaru or even Naraku, I think we could use some ruthless bloodletting politics to clean up the polls of all the supposed "computer errors", mis counts, and downright worthless condidates who are only in it for the pension plan, relatively easy hours and fringe benefits. Lord knows airforce one is a pretty little piece all on its own.

ONe last minute whatever for the fun of it, Do a good deed and help some kid or family around the holidays. I'm a firm believer that if there's anything that should be held as lethal law it is that no child should be left out or messed with around the holidays. Kids have such a short time to believe in the magic, and if nobody helps perpetuate it, it dies leaving a person who finds it so incredibly hard to believe in the good of other people. and that is a sad way to be, I believe.

I personally bought gifts for two kids I don't know and will most likely never meet through a program at work. If Wal-mart is good for something, they do so love to give back to their communities, and this is no publicity fabircation. I work the phones people, I hear the calls come in every month about donations our particular store makes to local organizations. And I know the national program with the salvation army for the bell-ringers can't be missed. (our cashiers and other front-end employees have been constantly complaining about the non-stop ringing. Heheh.)

On a completely different not, I had quite an adventure trying to get to work yesterday... My car died mid transit, right on the highway. I had enough warning to get over and off the road and to note the mile marker to tell my dad when I called home. still, I got stranded off of 69 in the rain, cold and wind for about 45 minutes. long enough to make me definitely late to work. Which is okay since I already called and told them that. WE'll see if it can be resurrected. Poor Moo. It's probably the alternator. The battery dieing was the ultimate reason the car stopped going, but we're pretty sure it's not what started it, started the keeling over of my old wagon. Station wagon that is. It's old and brown and mine. I loves it! The first car ever relegated to my position that was an automatic and had cruise control. TRUE LOVE!!

**Exploiting Expressions**

Heavy fat Snowflakes were already falling by the time everybody made it to the Mole's home tunnels. Yumi immediately showed them where Aki's stuff had been stashed and was promptly thrown out of her father's room with practically everybody else.

Fred got to stay because Sesshoumaru couldn't bully him into leaving, and the same applied to Kikyou who refused to leave before changing Aki's inadequate clothing.

It was a strange scene Kikyou walked into when she left the taiyoukai and his female with the ghost. Most of the group of shard hunters was nosily poking through the main living are for whatever reason. It was strange to her mainly because the undead miko was unfamiliar with their previous scavenger exploits and Miroku's con artist tendencies.

"Hey, I found some rope," Shippou called from the dark recesses of a low shelf.

"Good, we can use it to tie them up," Inuyasha declared as he took it from the kit.

"Should we tie them up?" Kagome asked, "them" being the mole family. "Aki might not like it if we tied the kids up."

"I do not think the lovely Aki will object so long as we do not hurt them," Miroku soothed her. Actually, he was quite certain Aki would object, but there wasn't a prayer of talking Inuyasha out of it.

"We could always untie them after she awakens but before she sees them," Sango suggested.

"What's to stop them from telling her about it?" Kagome pointed out.

"The threat of death on my claws if they say a word," Inuyasha growled.

"Oh please! We both know that once Aki wakes up she won't let you a lay a hand on any of them," Shippou scoffed. "If you weren't so stupid you'd have realized it."

The insulted hanyou growled threateningly at the kit as he bashed the boy on the head, "I know that, but they didn't!"

"Kagome!" Shippou screeched as he tore through the room in attempted escape. "Inuyasha's picking on me!"

"Osuwari!" Kagome snapped shortly. "Why do you always have to resort to violence, Inuyasha?" The hanyou didn't answer, too busy trying to breath around the pile of mining tools he's landed on.

"The mysteries behind Inuyasha's behavior are not worth the effort of figuring out," Kikyou observed. "AS for tieing up our new friends, don't bother. They may run away if they wish to expose themselves to Naraku's tender mercies, if the fear of Aki's rightful judgment so frightens them. It won't affect us any."

"Good point," Kagome tilted her head to the side thoughtfully.

"Kagome," Shippou looked up at her. "I'm hungry."

"We should settle in," Miroku observed. "Aki is not likely to wake quickly if Fred's words are true."

"And we'll be needed to keep Aki's attackers in line," Sango agreed. "With Sesshoumaru stuck to Aki, he won't bother with them at all."

"Not unless Aki takes too long to wake up," Inuyasha pointed out. "Then he's likely to kill them."

"Kill who? What are you plotting?" a scratchy voice demanded from the slightly open door. "I'll inform Sesshoumaru-sama about your evil plots."

"We were talking about Sesshoumaru killing someone, Baka!" Inuyasha growled at the ugly green retainer.

"Who is Sesshoumaru-sama going to kill?" a small voice asked as the door was pushed open a bit more and Azusa peeked through the opening behind Jaken. "Kagome and Inuyasha!" she squealed upon spotting her favorite dog boy.

Inuyasha winced and glanced about to make sure there weren't any flowers about.

"Where's Aki and Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin pushed the other two inside impatiently.

"They're in there," Kagome answered gently with a gesture to the closed door behind her.

"Is Aki okay?" Azusa demanded.

The majority of the group glanced at Kikyou who made a grand effort to stare only at the door concealing Aki from view. "She is recovering," the miko answered blandly.

"What do you mean?" Azusa asked, going pale. "I want to see her! Let me see her!" The little girl bolted across the room and shoved the door aside before anyone could catch her.

"Azusa no!" Kagome called with worry. Azusa and Sesshoumaru didn't exactly get along very well. It was dangerous for the child to approach him in the state he was in, but Azusa didn't care.

Azusa stopped short with her hand outstretched when the inu youkai growled at her. "Please," she whimpered as tears formed in her eyes. Aki was all she really had. She wanted to be certain the partial youkai was okay.

Sesshoumaru reached out slowly and dragged the child's hand to Aki's chest over her heart. He'd only worried the child would disturb the damaged ribs hidden beneath the white bandages, skin and clothing. He tried not to be too harsh with Azusa. He'd taken her from the village by the well to help insure that he would see Aki more often, that plan would backfire if he didn't treat the girl well.

It took a moment for Azusa's cold trembling fingers to register the rise and fall of Aki's chest and the faint beating of the heart under her hand, but when it finally did reach her the little girls' breath puffed out in a relieved sigh. The child leaned forward despite the inu youkai's closeness and rested her ear against the steady rhythm of her guardian's life.

"Azusa?" Rin called from the open doorway and the concerned crowd of people that had stopped before violating the room.

Azusa turned and smiled at her traveling companion. Aki was okay and her world had not collapsed again, she rubbed her cheek against the strange fabric of Aki's shirt.

Rin approached more slowly that Azusa had, her eyes steady on her own guardian. He would warn her off if she shouldn't come near. She skirted around Azusa to Sesshoumaru's side so that she could peer into Aki's face. She leaned against his shoulder, drawing comfort from this minor contact.

Kagome blinked at the picture before her. "What on Earth?" she gasped in wonder. She'd been pretty certain Sesshoumaru wouldn't allow either girl to intrude, but he had without serious protest. Kagome went to step into the room but Inuyasha stopped her. "What?" she asked in confusion.

Inuyasha shook his head and looked to his half brother. "He won't let you in there without violence," he informed her.

"Why?" Sango asked curiously, if the taiyoukai would allow the two girls why not Kagome too? "He let Azusa in and those two didn't seem to get along at all.

"That was when we all first met the child, things have most likely changed since then," Miroku pointed out. "She was traveling with him, if appearances are to be believed."

"It wouldn't have mattered," Inuyasha declared gruffly. "Azusa and Rin are human children. They aren't a threat and they are familiar, practically part of his pack. Kagome is not a child and she is not perceived as part of his pack." Kagome beamed at being declared not a child by her hanyou. After all, if she wasn't a child she had to be a woman and old enough for certain things she was pretty sure Inuyasha thought she was too young for before.

"And Kagome has miko powers," Kikyou said from the other side of the room.

"Then why did he let you in?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Because Kikyou and I were the ones to tell him Aki was in trouble," Fred answered. "And even then, Kikyou didn't stay long."

"Yeah, and the kids probably shouldn't either," Inuyasha declared.

"As almost non-existent as Sesshoumaru's relationship with Aki is, we're lucky he's allowed anyone near when she's in this condition," Sango nodded. "I was surprised when he let the kids in at all, it's very unusual. Most youkai would kill anything that moved too close when sheltering a mate that has suffered injury."

"I hate to say Sesshoumaru is ever right about anything, but he is a taiyoukai," Inuyasha grudgingly explained. "He has a higher level of control and reasoning, but it isn't limitless."

"Leave the kids be for now," Miroku suggested. "Rin and Azusa are Sesshoumaru and Aki's children in a way. It may soothe all of them to be near each other for a while." The monk nodded to the huddled group in the other room. "Let them stay until a meal is prepared. Then we would at least have a valid reason to call them away without alarming the children."

"Somebody needs to try coaxing something into Aki and probably Sesshoumaru as well," Fred declared wryly.

Kikyou glanced at the ghost speakingly; did he know just how fractious the inu youkai was likely to be if they tried to make him eat?

"Well, Aki did lose a lot of blood when she cut her wrist," Kagome thought aloud. "She needs to at least drink some water to help replace it."

"FUCK!" Fred yelled and Kagome jumped in surprise at his obscene out burst.

"Don't bring that up ever again," Inuyasha growled darkly. "Never again, Kagome, especially not around Sesshoumaru's people."

"Pretending it didn't happen isn't going to solve anything," Kagome grumbled.

"No, Kagome, that's not what he meant," Miroku tried to diffuse the brewing argument.

"Sesshoumaru is currently very on edge Kagome and he will not ever handle any reminder of situations where he couldn't prevent harm to Aki well. Especially if the harm was caused by herself," Sango explained gently. "It is best not to provoke him to violence."

"And the children have no need to know," Kikyou declared. "They know Aki was hurt, but they don't need to know that some of it was self inflicted unless they ask."

"Which they most likely won't," Fred pointed out. "Even if they did you could gloss it over if you really want but Aki will set them straight if it ever comes up."

"Still your faith in her never waivers," Miroku commented, his hand twitching at Sango's proximity

"Aki has proven on more than one occasion he has good reason for his faith," Kikyou shrugged. "Even this last time when the worst damage wasn't from an enemy, Aki pulled through the situation faster than death could claim her.

"She even protected Yumi and Youta despite their stupidity and bad behavior by annihilating that Naraku puppet," Shippou declared a bit loudly. He was very proud to have been able to use one of the big words Aki had taught him.

"That certainly does seem consistent with her normal behavior," Kagome nodded.

"Except for the annihilating the puppet before it attacked," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

"Can you blame her?" Fred demanded, having heard the hanyou. "Besides, Naraku's puppets aren't really alive are they?"

"He's got a point," Miroku shook his head.

"Well the ghost having a point doesn't get food made or people settled," Inuyasha growled.

"Settled how Inuyasha?" Miroku asked the hanyou. "What is there to settle? We are sheltered and warm. This is someone's home so most everything we could possibly need is already here and accessible. The door is shut and the fire started, what more do you need?"

"Who's sleeping where and when, stupid!" Inuyasha growled at the lecherous monk who had clearly assumed it wasn't an issue despite the number of people involved and the amount of space they had so far seen in the mole's home. "Somebody has to keep watch over those bastards!"

"No need to appoint a guard," Kikyou declared boredly. "Two of us are quite dead and hove no real need for sleep."

"Don't you need to rest at all?" Kagome couldn't believe it.

"Not really," Fed shrugged "occasionally I wind up in a kind of fuzzy state similar to being half asleep, but that only happens when I'm invisible," he grinned impishly. "And Kikyou only has to rest when she's forced on a diet."

"For the last time," Kikyou smacked him upside the head, "Souls don't weigh a thing as you've said yourself. I can't gain weight from feeding on souls."

"Being fat isn't the only reason to go on a diet," Fred smiled even wider.

"Stop harassing Kikyou," Inuyasha growled.

"Or you'll what?" Fred snorted, keeping attention off Kagome. "You don't even know what we're talking about, so butt out."

"Fred behave yourself or I'll tell Aki and she will finally come to her senses and get rid of you," Kikyou taunted the ghost.

"You better watch that," Fred warned her with the same demented grin. "Aki will tell us to kiss and make up again."

A small amount of color gathered in Kikyou's cheeks at the memory of the last time that happened.

"What do you mean kiss?" Inuyasha demanded loudly.

Kagome looked away to hide the emotion in her eyes before explaining that it was "just an expression" and nothing to worry about.

Kikyou, upon hearing Kagome's tone, glared at the ghost who was the cause of Inuyasha's outburst. "Just an expression?" her eyes narrowed at Fred dangerously.

"Yeah," he smiled innocently, "It basically means to drop the disagreement and get along."

"Just an expression!" the dead miko fumed.

"What are you making a big deal out of this?" Kagome asked in confusion. "It's not like Fred could actually kiss you and take advantage of the situation."

Miroku smirked at the ghost, "I believe that is exactly what happened. What I want to know is when it happened."

"But Fred's a ghost, he can't touch anybody. How could he kiss Kikyou?" Sango asked after pounding the monk into the ground for his cursed hand.

The ghost's grin turned positively evil. "Like this," he declared with glee and demonstrated on Kikyou before she had the chance to escape.

"Ew, gross!" Youta exclaimed. "Dad, the dead people are kissing!" his horror and disgust was met with nothing more than the crackling of the fire that valiantly warmed the moles' residence and the people therein. No one could bring themselves to do more than stare with ever widening eyes as Fred kissed the daylights out of the undead miko.

Eventually Fred let Kikyou go wit a smug expression painted over his pale features. Kikyou had been so thoroughly kissed Kagome was breathless.

"Woo! That was some kiss!" Kagome laughed as the clay miko was having trouble controlling her anger.

"You must have been quite experienced in your day," Miroku offered in admiration. He was already trying to figure out ways to get Sango to ask for pointers. Ah, to expose and contaminate others with his special depravities.

Fred just shrugged but kept on eye on the building rage in the shaking frame of the miko he'd just kissed. Kikyou really couldn't do anything to him, he was dead, but she was fun to watch when she tried.

"Did you always run around kissing girls that didn't want you to?" Inuyasha demanded with a growl.

"Nah," Fred shrugged nonchalantly. What did he care if Inuyasha was on the verge of throwing a fit? "But Kikyou and I needed to 'kiss and make up' you know."

"It's quite obvious Kikyou's still pissed off, so it didn't work," the hanyou snarled.

"Then I guess I didn't kiss her good enough," Fred replied and lunged at Kikyou. The miko was pushed back from the ghost by Inuyasha, forcing the ghost to travel through the dog boy, but he still managed to plant his kiss.

This time the kiss lasted twice as long and was quite obviously a great deal more thorough. By the time Fred was done with her the second time, Kikyou was incapable of coherent thought.

Inuyasha was torn between rage and a horrific trembling disgust at having a ghost sail through him.

"Dear lord, Fred!" Kagome exclaimed. "If Kikyou wasn't already dead she would be form the pleasure of that kiss!" Kagome's warm enthusiasm in commenting on the kiss shared between the miko and the ghost helped Inuyasha overcome his disgust and turned his rage into a different breed altogether.

He didn't like her praising the kissing abilities of another male so strongly, but he couldn't really yell at her for her opinion. It wasn't as if she had any real experience to base it on to begin with. Kagome just didn't go around kissing other guys; he ought to know, what with all the clobbering he did to ensure it. And it wasn't as if Inuyasha had ever kissed her consciously.

There was that one time, but it had been her to kiss him and she'd only done it to save his and everybody else's lives.

In any case, he definitely _had_ to shut her up.

"You call that a kiss?" Inuyasha interrupted Kagome's stream of teasing praise to the dead male. She barely had time to blink before his lips were planted rather firmly on hers.

Blessed, blessed silence. Kagome's eyes rolled back into her head with pleasure before the shock had entirely worn off. That was before Inuyasha actually put any real effort into the kiss. Then it was really something to make her toes curl.

Then Fred's catcalls and the sound of Miroku propositioning Sango _and_ Kikyou filtered into his brain and it finally clicked that Inuyasha really was kissing Kagome like no tomorrow. Once it actually registered to him that he was KISSING Kagome _in front of_ Kikyou the heart ran out of his kiss and the two parted on a rather flat note.

"Well, I'd say you could use a little finessing on your ending, but the start was good," Fred teased the dog boy as the tide of crimson rose up to drown Inuyasha's features in embarrassment even as he carefully watched Kagome.

Sango sighed and approached a rather stunned and slightly disheartened Kagome. Even someone as innocent and inexperienced as Kagome was could tell that Inuyasha hadn't been thinking only about her during that kiss. And the miko-in-training was pretty certain it wouldn't have happened at all if Fred hadn't kissed Kikyou first. She knew this just as surely as she knew Inuyasha had flubbed her first real kiss because Kikyou was present.

"Are you all right Kagome?" Sango asked quietly under the noise of Fred's continued teasing of Inuyasha. Sometimes she wondered if half the outrageous things the ghost said and did was to allow just such questions to be asked without drawing too much attention.

Kagome sniffed absently before taking a deep breath. "I'm fine," she declared fiercely. The look on Sango's face made her duck under the scrutiny of her friend's gaze. "Let's just get some food made for everybody," the time traveler shrugged tiredly. "I think I'll want to turn in early and that can't happen if dinner doesn't get made."

Sango sighed but let it go, moving to help her fr

iend while pointedly staying out of range of the slowly rousing monk. Sometime, he just didn't know when to quit. Tenacity was only a good thing when applied to the right purposes. Unfortunately, Miroku hadn't as yet found one to suit him besides groping and indecently propositioning women.

Yumi stared up at the warrior woman who had clobbered the man in purple that couldn't seem to behave himself. The girl really wouldn't mind helping prepare dinner, in fact she felt kind of bad that she hadn't already started. It was her home after all, and as rare as guest were, her mama had taught her to be a proper hostess. But she was afraid of what these strangers would do if she offered her help. It wasn't like they had met under normal circumstances.

Her timidity was overcome the moment the little mole realized the strangers intended to use the small cooking dishes that they brought with them instead of her mother's larger pots and pans, which would save cooking time. It would take them forever to cook dinner for everybody with those pans and her family was sure to be the last fed. Yumi was quite hungry already and didn't think she could wait that long.

Never underestimate hunger as a motivator in a child. Yumi flew over to where the dish was stashed, which was strange because moles aren't known for flight. The movement startled both her family and Inuyasha, causing one to shout and the other to growl. In the end, Kagome merely thanked the girl and gave her something to do to help the meal preparations further along.

"Just because you helped, doesn't mean you'll get fed," Inuyasha growled.

"Osuwari!" Kagome added her own growl. "She will be fed and you will not threaten her that way!"

"I must concur with Kagome," Miroku added gently "the children should not be denied sustenance. Aki would not wish us to deprive them in such a way."

"The only fault of Yumi and Youta is that they had not realized the danger to Aki being unable to act on her own," Sango pointed out. "Tell me how many children you know their age that would have made the necessary connection without coaching."

Inuyasha growled something unintelligible and quite possibly obscene.

"By your own argument, their father could do without a meal or two," Kikyou pointed out. "He cannot use youth to defend his actions."

"No dinner for him!" Shippou gleefully declared.

"No!" Kagome shouted. "You said to let Aki deal out their punishment, so only Aki can decide that!"

"Here's a compromise," Fred cut in. "Treat him like a prisoner. Give him bland but filling food like plain rice or ramen noodles without the seasoning."

"No ramen!" Inuyasha bellowed.

Kagome rolled her eyes, "Nobody is going to give away your stupid ramen. If you don't settle down even you won't get any!"

"I'm rather taken with that idea, Fred," Miroku talked calmly over the building argument.

"I like Kagome's idea of not making Ramen," Sango shrugged as she prepped some soft rice to be spoon fed to Aki. "Even bland rice sounds more appealing."

"Careful Sango," Miroku smirked. "You wouldn't want Inuyasha to hear such blasphemy."

"Hey Kagome," Sango called as Yumi revealed the Mole family's stored food. "What do you say we make a real dinner out of what's here?"

"Sounds Great!" Kagome replied brightly. "Inuyasha can eat his stupid ramen and Aki can share her soft rice with Yumi and Youta's father."

"Don't let the youkai Lord hear the word 'share' used in the same sentence as Aki and her tormentor," Kikyou advised.

"Tormentor is a bit strong," Kagome muttered.

"No it isn't!" Fred stated heatedly. "What would you call involuntary starvation, sleep deprivation and constant manipulation if not torment?"

Kagome scoffed, "that definition makes Naraku sound cuddly and Inuyasha into our tormentor."

"What!" Inuyasha barked.

"Ah, Kagome-sama presents a tantalizing argument," Miroku pondered admiringly. "Inuyasha often drives us past meal times leaving us too weary to eat and without rest in pursuit of Naraku. He manipulates us by using constant reminders as to what Naraku has already done to us and what he might currently be doing to others."

"Whereas Naraku only manipulates us using clearly visible tools," Sango picked up the monk's thought. "Such as my brother and the saimyoushi."

"I am _not_ worse than Naraku!" Inuyasha hollered indignantly.

"We didn't say you were. We were simply exploring how Fred's definition of torment applies to our situation," Miroku soothed the hanyou.

"The difference," Fred growled, "is that Inuyasha's behavior does not ultimately cause you more harm than good and is based solely on his impatience, whereas the mole's spell _would_ have eventually killed Aki very slowly simply because he desired to use her for his own purposes."

"And that lands him on par with Naraku," Kikyou observed. "If Inuyasha could leave you out of the hunt he would, but the mole youkai never considered other options."

"Papa was afraid," Yumi cried, tears glistening in her eyes. "Naraku had already killed mama and two of my brothers."

Kagome pulled the girl into a hug. "Does Aki know this?" she asked gently.

Yumi nodded. "The first night I talked with her was after a nightmare about it. I waned to talk about mama, but papa never did and Youta didn't understand like mama would have."

"Not like Aki understood," Fred nodded. "Like Azusa and Rin and Sango and Shippou and Inuyasha and Miroku and Kagome and to a lesser extent Sesshoumaru would understand."

"Huh?" Shippou demanded.

"All have lost something to Naraku or the Shikon no Tama and all have not desired to forget about it or that which was lost," Kikyou explained "instead they use the memory as a reason to continue, to work towards making it so that others will not suffer the same. Aki is the only exception because it is not the Shikon or Naraku in specific that caused her loss, but she treated it the same."

"What aren't you included in that list Kikyou?" Shippou asked in confusion.

"Because I am not alive," Kikyou answered succinctly as she picked up the bowl of soft rice meant for Aki. "Come on ghost, lets go see if we can feed Aki while she sleeps. I will send the girls out for the meal. It would be wise to keep them from returning again tonight." The miko advised before opening the door and stepping into the room haunted by Sesshoumaru's growling.

"What did Sesshoumaru lose?" Shippou asked quietly.

"It's not what he lost Shippou, but what he nearly lost," Miroku replied. "Though if things keep up like this, he really will lose it."

Sango shook her head and helped Kagome serve up dinner. What Sesshoumaru was likely to lose would affect them all should it come to pass, and not in a good way.


	4. Tit for Tat

Hah, hah, I made it through another week! Seriously, retail in December sucks!

And on that note, it is entirely too common to run into people who have worked in retail or who currently do that absolutely hate christmas music. This is because, as I'm pretty sure most people have noticed, stores start playing their holiday music in mid November and don't stop, _ever_ unti the holiday as over. Now, I personally have realized that I very much like music, holiday music included, and will always like it, but I have come to a conclusion that the stores could seriuosly limit their play list and not drive their staff crazy and everybody would be a hell of a lot happier.

First off, despite the fact that stores, especially department stores, are trying to really plug the holiday cds while they can, they should really try to avoid playing contemperary christmas music. You know what I'm talking about. I mean the crap that every new artist puts out at the height of their popularity for some extra cash. Sadly, crap is not just an indicator of how much effort was put into it, it is also a definite description of the quality. For example, I may love most of the music I've ever heard by OutKast (which is completely contrary to my normal opinion of the genre) but I do not want to hear them screwing up _Silent Night_. The other day I hearda heavy metal version of the _Little Drummer Boy_ and I wanted to smack whoever it was that thought it was a) a good idea to make it and b) wanted to play it. The fact is, you have to be seriuosly careful when remaking old christmas music. The holidays are a time steeped in little idiosyncracies we like to call tradition and the music is a part of that. WE love the versions we grew up with, the ones done by the smooth voices of the crooners from the time of our grandparents. There is a magic to holiday music that lies in its basic simplicity. _Little Drummer Boy_ is great because there is one drum whether it is sung by a choir or one person with back up. Sadly it is difficult to convince the modern day generation to stop messing with the music, it won't really sell to anyone above age 13.

Exception to the above restriction, the only contemporary holiday songs I've heard that have been well received and played more than the year it was released are all the comical songs. _Grandma Got RAn over by a REindeer_, _The Chipmunk Song_, _I'm Gettin' Nuthin' for Christmas_, and _SAnta Baby_ are just good fun that plays in awesomely well with the season. But nothing more recent than _Rockin' ARound the Christmas Tree_ and _Jingle Bell Rock _has really found extended play if it wasn't humorous because as I said we love our old music best.

SEcondly stores should avoid playing too many carols with the words. Instrumental versions are just less intrusive, you can't get the words stuck in your head if you can't hear them and still the store would get the target benefit of people in that holiday gotta shop mood because it plays like a sound track.

I'm sure we could limit it more, but just with those two future Retail employees would be able to enjoy all their favorite holiday tunes for ages... Don't you think?

On a completely different note, it appears nobody really liked the last chapter all that much. Seriously it's sad, almost enough to make me wanna stop posting all together... _NOT!!_ I am impervious, I will continuing posting so long as I have chapters to post AND YOU WILL LIKE THEM!!!! THBBBBTTT!

Not even Rumiko Takahashi will be spared!

On the plus side, AKi has a more active roll in this chapter...for an unconscious person. Even Sesshoumaru gets to take part, but he's also unconscious. Seriously the most active characters in this chapter are asleep! You'll see what I mean, you can't help yourself. You know you love it!

Oh and before I forget, happy holidays (or lack there of if you happen to not celebrate at all...), I'll be posting next Wednesday just because I can! Myabe I'll give a detailed list of all the things I got that I didn't know about before hand... (that'll be a whole 4 gifts. Seriously it gives away the surprise when they ASK you if you would like a specific item for christmas.) Read on!

**Tit for Tat**

It isn't good for a body to worry too much. Anxiousness leads to sleeplessness, which eventually lands a person in a state of exhaustion rendering what might have been a capable helpful person utterly useless around the time help is needed. But sometimes it can't be prevented as Sesshoumaru unfortunately proved.

Days passed and Aki never woke. They continued to trickle water down her throat and coax soft rice into her stomach, but there was only so much they could feed her this way. And Kikyou was limited even further my Sesshoumaru's reluctance to allow her around the in his arms.

Fred spent more and more time in that invisible state that allowed him into Aki's dreams as time went on. Every time he would reappear he seemed more agitated and concerned and the intervals between his attempts to connect with Aki grew shorter and shorter.

The others did their best to act like none of this meant anything. So Fred was visibly worried, so what? So Aki wasn't getting much to eat, so what? So Sesshoumaru was growing more and more protective over… there was no real way to brush this off after Kikyou advised them against letting Azusa and Rin near him after a few days. So the group did their darndest to distract the kids to keep them calm.

Not that the kids weren't already wise to what was going on. Yumi kept sending her father accusing looks and even Youta looked a little worried.

Rin and Azusa hovered outside the door every time Kikyou went to try feeding Aki and every time she came back out they demanded to know how Aki and Sesshoumaru were doing. Kikyou always forbore to answer instead patting each on the head and handing whatever soft rice was left in the bowl over to the youkai that caused all this.

It was his own special torment. The mole youkai would eat whatever was left in the bowl. Jaken had insisted on this punishment the moment he realized how little the miko had managed to feed his lord's female. Now the mole youkai dreaded the sight of it. He was sick of the bland taste of the cold rice, and the texture wasn't much better. With every visit the miko made into his former bedchamber, he prayed the bowl would return empty.

Inuyasha was never one to wait around patiently. He didn't do enclosed spaces well and inactivity got on his nerves. Sitting still gave him too much time to think and, as is often the case, he tended to think in circles when he couldn't move about.

Normally thought circles were hardly more than decidedly annoying, but Inuyasha wasn't one to have just annoying thought circles, his had a tendency to be dangerous. They tended to be especially hazardous to his health when his thought circles dealt with the two big, powerful, angry loves of his life, namely Kagome and the undead miko, Kikyou. And being trapped as he was in a somewhat small home after watching one being kissed and personally kissing the other, his thoughts couldn't help but involve them both.

Inuyasha greeted each new day of cursed inactivity with stronger expletives and increasing annoyance.

All of which had little to no bearing on the important content of this chapter of Aki's so-called life. Everyday could have held a party that never ended and Sesshoumaru still would have succumbed to the exhaustion his constant vigil claimed him with the way exhaustion always does when you keep a constant vigil over someone for days on end without rest.

_"Fred where are you!" a worried voice sounded in his ears before Sesshoumaru had the chance to realize he was dreaming. "Come out Fred! I don't remember deciding to play hide and seek," the voice tried to laugh though the sound was horribly strained. "Fred this isn't funny!"_

_It finally clicked that the voice belonged to Aki and her worry was quickly crumbling into terrible fear. This was not to be allowed. Besides, he was feeling a bit bereft without her in his arms despite the knowledge that he was still holding her in the real world._

_Sesshoumaru quickly to get from where he was to wherever she was, but found that hurry was useless if he didn't take the time to figure out where he was and where she was in relation to that. Shooting off in some random direction hadn't gotten him any closer to Aki giving her fear that much more time to develop and grow._

_With a growl to himself for his own stupidity, Sesshoumaru was finally heading in the right direction. Perhaps he should try harder to limit time spent in his brother's company if the whelp's stupidity was so catching. The inu youkai tried not to wince as Aki's voice finally sank past the point of mild worry and into terror._

_Sesshoumaru broke into view of his prey and pulled her into his arms before she had a chance to realize he was there._

_Aki stiffened in panic, her already frightened mind told her this was the attack that would naturally follow fear in a dream. Then she glanced down at the monster's claws and found familiar, gentle hands with claws that would protect her from the nightmares when they came for her. She relaxed a bit and patted the striped wrist wrapped around her middle._

_"So that's why Fred disappeared like that," Aki murmured thoughtfully._

_"Hmm," Sesshoumaru nuzzled the crown of her head and brushed his other hand against her cheek._

_"You have an interesting ability to bar all others from my dreams, you know that? She hugged his arm tightly. "It scared me when Fred just suddenly wasn't there anymore." Aki shook her head, "He never leaves like that, and so I was afraid something had happened."_

_"Would you have wakened up to see?" Sesshoumaru asked quietly. She had been asleep too long in his opinion._

_"I don't know," Aki bowed her head to study her hands on his wrist. "Sometimes it's hard to remember this is a dream."_

_The inu youkai squeezed her a bit tighter as his worry spiked. It wasn't a good sign. The first sign of insanity was an inability to distinguish between reality and imagination. "Why is it so hard to remember?" Sesshoumaru asked. Perhaps he could help her if he knew the cause._

_"Because when I am alone the nightmares come," Aki's slender fingers twined around his claws. "Fred says they are based on the real events, but the images are disjointed because of the spell. And they change slowly over time so I can't tell which is the memory and which is not. I feel the pain as if it were real, and the fear grows with the repetition of it."_

_"What do you dream?" he found himself asking despite a distinct lack of desire for the actual knowledge. He just knew the information was going to make him uncomfortable._

_"About what happened to put me here in the first place." She mumbled reluctantly. And he was forced to remember the events as she did._

_It was very easy to see how she could have such trouble distinguishing between the real events and the slightly changed versions. Once he got over experiencing the nightmare from her point of view and no longer feeling her in his arms he could understand her trouble._

_The mole's spell had left her incapable of fully connecting and recognizing her environment. Occasionally she would manage a clear picture of what was in front of her, but the sound and scent was gone from it. Always she heard the orders clearly, but her vision would go hazy when that happened._

_In her altercation with Inuyasha's group, what he saw through her eyes could not easily be identified as the same events as experienced by everyone else. She had no way of identifying who exactly she was fighting, only resisting the orders because they were violent ones that went against her very nature. Sesshoumaru felt the pain ripple through her as she struck the tree and the rest of her senses dimmed in response to it. Still she fought the compulsion to move and fight. _

_Impressions and sight came in brief flashes that left him reeling and unable to make sense of what he saw. It took him several minutest o realize that one of the numerous blurry blobs in front of him was himself as he had arrived around this point in real life._

_Suddenly the images sharpened as Aki's weapon flew through the air to strike. He felt the metal biting horrifically into flesh before the nightmare ended abruptly._

_Sesshoumaru was again standing where he'd found Aki in their shared dream. The nightmare had cut off when she had exclaimed in pain and stepped away from him, examining her bleeding wrist. It wasn't as bad as when as when she had cut it in real life. Then it had been on purpose, now it appeared that she had accidentally cut herself of his claws._

_She sighed and let her wrist drop. "I scared myself when I did that," Aki turned to look at him. "I never thought I was capable of hurting myself like that. I just didn't think I had it in me."_

_Sesshoumaru stepped forward and grabbed her wrist to study the wound as it bled weakly. He hated the constant reminders of that near deadly wound she inflicted upon herself. It was a physical pain in his gut at every turn. Or maybe he was just stuck on this particular failure. He had come to her aid only to watch as she was forced to threaten her own life to set herself free. Some rescue._

_He slowly lifted the wound higher until she tugged on it with slight alarm. "Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Aki asked worriedly._

_Sesshoumaru caught her eyes with his and held them as he continued to raise her wrist inexorably to his mouth. Dreams were for the mind over the body, for the intellect more than instinct. The extent of Instinct's power in the unconscious mind was the ability to jerk the body awake before a dream death could occur. There was little reason to fear an instinctual reaction from his tasting the wound._

_Aki cringed just before he made contact with the minor scratch, but relaxed when his touch failed to cause the pain she'd expected. Each moist caress of his tongue was gentle and warm._

_She titled her head to the side to watch him curiously as his eyes slid shut to savor this simple taste of her._

_Sesshoumaru drank her in and analyzed his reaction. It was interesting to discover how much of his desire for Aki wasn't based on instinct. Strangely, it pleased him to know that it wasn't instinct that had him fixated on her, at least not entirely._

_After a short time the tiny scratch failed to offer any more blood for him to taste so he moved to taste her skin, just to keep Aki distracted. His lips and tongue explored the tender soft skin beyond her wrist to the inside of her elbow, absently pushing her sleeve out of the way. Sesshoumaru watch her out of the corner of his eye. He noted when she shook her head in amusement made obvious by the smile that wouldn't' leave her face._

_When he couldn't move her clothing out of his way with ease, Sesshoumru swept out with his foot and dragged hers out from under her, gently knocking her to the ground._

_"Oomf!" Aki gasped when Sesshoumaru's weight settled onto her with a sigh._

_Sesshoumaru didn't bother to shift his weight so that she could breathe easier, for this was a dream and weight was imaginary._

_"Why are we on the ground like this?" Aki asked the tree branches above them. Sesshoumaru shifted to lay his cheek against her shoulder and stare up at her profile. She glanced at him form the corner of her eye, knowing that if she turned her head to look at him directly they would be too close to talk properly._

_"This Sesshoumaru," he began and she huffed and looked away. Sesshoumaru suppressed a growl and propped himself up on one arm. His other hand gently drew her chin back towards him until she was looking up at him. "This Sesshoumaru was scared to learn you were capable of doing that to yourself too."_

_Aki's eyes widened in surprise. Then she began to tear up and tremble. "I'm sorry," a big fat tear rolled down the side of her face. "I'm sorry," she whispered again and hugged him closer._

_Sesshoumaru licked the tears from her face before settling to rest on her should again, listening to her cry as he pondered the absence of salt in her tears. He noticed the lack of sniffling that would normally accompany a bout of tears like this. There was no hiccupping like the last time she cried either._

His mind absorbed and processed all this information as he allowed her to cry out all her fear and worry and loneliness. His claws roamed down her shoulders and arms in effort to comfort her, to be certain she knew she wasn't alone.

_Eventually her sobs subsided with a hesitating sigh. Aki's hand sifted gently through his hair, letting the silver slide from her grasp like sand. She shifted minutely so she could look at him resting against her._

_He reached up and brushed his thumb against Aki's still damp cheek. "Have you ever before cried without salt in your tears?" he asked her gently. When Aki just blinked at him in confusion he collect the last of her tears on his finger and presented t for her to taste._

_She lifted an eyebrow at his seemingly oddball gesture before licking the moisture off his finger. All she tasted was fresh water and she stared at him in surprise._

_He smiled down at her and asked another question. "Have you ever cried without sniffling or losing your breath before now?"_

_Aki paused in thought as she realized he was right. She hadn't wound up hiccupping or gasping for breath, her nose hadn't started to run or given her a reason to sniffle. Her cheeks were missing the feeling of dried salt and her eyes weren't burning after her sudden water works._

_Aki had never been one of those people who could dry pettily either, but this time she suspected her face hadn't turned splotchy with color. Which she supposed could only mean one thing, she really was dreaming and Sesshoumaru was trying to give her indicators to help her tell that. Apparently he had taken her inability to tell the reality from this extended stay in dreamland very seriously._

_Only problem, she didn't' cry often enough for it to be truly helpful._

_Sesshoumaru must have realized this because he climbed off of her onto his knees besides her. He glanced down at her thoughtfully before carefully placing one clawed hand over her middle. "Do you feel the ache of hunger here?" he asked._

_Aki blinked up at him. "I don't know about hunger, but I feel empty to the point of pain."_

_"Is it constant?" Sesshoumaru studied her pensively as she nodded. "Have you tried eating?"_

_Her focus shifted to the branches overhead as she thought about it. "Fred insists we have a picnic at least once every time he visits, and the emptiness gets a little smaller for awhile, but it never goes away."_

_"That's because your hunger cannot be assuaged in this place. Dream food holds no substance," Sesshoumaru replied. "The ghost probably attempts to feed you in the dream to make it easier for the dead miko to feed you while you sleep."_

_"Kikyou's been feeding me?" Aki asked in mild surprise and embarrassed horror. She would have sat up but he prevented it._

_"Not very much," Sesshoumaru nodded mildly, his hand still holding her down. "There is only so much that can be coaxed into the unconscious, even if it is only water and soft rice._

_Aki made a face at that, "No wonder all that food tasted funny! And I bet you gave her a hard time about every attempt she made too."_

_Sesshoumaru flushed with colour, "I just don't like her smell," he spoke with finality._

_She gave him a flat look, "I'll have to remember that the next time I want you to leave me alone." _

_"Say what you will woman, but you like the way I smell," he leaned over her with a grin._

_"What gives you that idea?" Aki demanded petulantly._

_"You do when you're half asleep," Sesshoumaru informed her. "The way you scent me nearby and smile."_

_She scowled at that. Trust him to use her unconscious actions against her. "Fine I like it like I enjoy the smell of old books when they've been properly aired out," she replied with a smirk._

_"For the last time. I am not old," Sesshoumaru growled. "I'm-"_

_"Ancient?" she cut in with a cheeky smile. "Older than dirt? From the Stone Age? Knew the makers of Stonehenge? Knew King Tut when he was a kid? Helped kill off the dinosaurs?"_

_Sesshoumaru growled and attacked her with his fingers. He knew exactly how old she'd suggested he was with those insults having learned what dinosaurs were and who kind Tut was on their trip to the museum. He wasn't exactly sure what Stonehenge was. He made a mental note to ask about it at a later date._

_Aki shrieked when his claws first closed in on her sides to tickle her. She wriggled and writhed in attempted escape as laughter burst forth from her mouth._

_Eventually he stopped to let her breath and she lunged up at him, knocking Sesshoumaru flat on his back and fully exposed to her revenge. It was his turn to dance and buck under her unmerciful avenging fingers as the tickled him pink and red. The sound of his unrestrained laughter was always stilted, as thought he couldn't' believe he was laughing and nothing bad had come of the sound._

_Aki always wondered if something had happened once to make him sound that way. This went beyond just hiding his emotions. There had to be something that caused that small nuance in the sound of his mirth. But she never bothered to ask him about it._

_To ask such a question would make him self-conscious about his laugh and ruin what little joy it caused. Besides, if he wanted her to know, he would tell her on his own._

_She was slightly thankful he hadn't ever tried to tell her such things before though. It was easier to keep him at arm's distance if he kept he there himself. Aki smiled dementedly down at Sesshoumaru where she had him pinned at her mercy, her nimble fingers never betrayed her pondering. Not that he really would have noticed, his eyes were closed in a failing attempt to fight back the tears leaking from his eyes._

_He looked so funny and failed so miserably at fighting his reaction that Aki couldn't help but laugh as well. That was the last straw and Sesshoumaru captured her hands and lunged upward until they both fell back to the ground with her on bottom._

_"You dare to laugh at this Sesshoumaru," the inu youkai tried to regain his serious façade and failed completely when Aki wiggled in a certain way when he was mid-sentence. His name had unfortunately been said a couple octaves from the tone he'd been trying to achieve._

_Aki laughed as slight color flooded his face. "Yep! This Aki dares to laugh at that Sesshoumaru," She mocked him playfully, and squirmed again in hopes of breaking free._

_"Stop that," Sesshoumaru meant to growl but wound up whining instead._

_"I will not," She declared flippantly. "In fact, I think I'll laugh at you some more." And she wiggled again to punctuate her statement._

_The taiyoukai released her hands to latch onto something more bothersome and pressed his body down more strongly in hopes to better restrain that terrible movement._

_Aki frowned up at his strange behavior. What the hell was he doing? "Sesshoumaru?" She murmured in her confusion._

_Sesshoumaru groaned, now just her talk was causing the reaction. Apparently his mind could be turned on just as easily as his instinct when it comes to Aki. The wise youkai would leap up and put some distance between himself and the temptation to break his part of their promise, but he didn't want to move away from her._

_While they were awake she was always putting distance between them for whatever reason and sometimes Aki continued to do so in their dreams, whereas he was constantly working to counter that. At least he used to be before the promise._

_Now the only time Sesshoumaru could get away with trying to move in on Aki was in their shared dreams, but even there he had limits._

_Aki tilted her head to study him better and the movement, so small and innocent, sent him spiraling over the edge to where he just had to do something. His hands trapped her face and he kissed her strong and hard. Coherent thought had abandoned him as pure emotion blazed through Sesshoumaru and out of him at the most important point of contact between their mouths._

_Aki froze in shock at his first contact with her lips, the kiss throwing a barrel of monkey wrenches into the workings of her more thoughtful self. It was disgraceful how easily her train of thought could be hijacked and derailed by something so incredibly small. Or so she might have thought if Sesshoumaru's kiss had left her the power to actually think. Instead all she could do was react, and those reactions were based on erratic emotions at that._

_It was these same emotions that directed her to drag her hands up to latch onto Sesshoumaru's forearms where they rested above her chest due to his hands still cradling her face. Her claws accidentally grazed his skin as they settled into a hold that could either be an attempt to lock him in place or push him away._

_The small almost pain was enough to bring Sesshoumaru back to his senses and he softened the kiss before ending it completely. He buried his face in the crook of her neck with a groan. Keeping this promise would be the death of him!_

_Aki nearly chuckled at the sound but restrained herself. "Nobody said keeping promises was easy Sess," She said as her hand ran over his hair in an offer of comfort._

_The inu youkai growled his frustration as he rolled to lie on his back at arms length from her. Sesshoumru stared up at the maze of branches and memories that hovered overhead. Some memories were his: memories from childhood, memories from adulthood. Memories from before Aki were slowly being crowded out by memories from after the moment he met her._

_He wondered what would happen if the memories of Inuyasha and Fred giving him advice were to pop there for Aki to see, or what if the full conversation between him and Loki had while locked in that room were to pop up? Sesshoumaru almost cringed when those exact memories did appear. If Aki caught a glimpse of those he was in trouble. Who was he kidding, if? More like when. His only hope was to distract her from looking up and paying attention._

_The best thing he could come up with was to encourage her to wake up. He was not the only one worried after all. Sesshoumaru glanced over to where she lay, intending to bring this up, only to find the space empty. He looked straight up in building alarm to find her memories no longer present and bits of the tree were already starting to disappear._

_He hated when she did that. The feeling of being alone in the remnants of their dream was annoying at best. The worst thing about it was knowing that by the time he managed to wake up, Aki would most likely have disappeared from where he could see her as was her constant habit. And he hated that too!_

_But…_

_At least she was awake. At least she was moving around and could finally start eating more than the little snatches of food the miko had thus far managed to feed her._

_Still he would rather have awakened before her, knowing Aki she would probably do things she shouldn't. She was Aki after all…_


	5. Perpetual Motion

Finally the holiday is over! er...oh no, no it's not. I forgot about the evils of retail the day after chirstmas and New Years' Eve and Day. Silly me!

Now I would like to discuss something that annoys me year round. I'm afraid we're back to those wonderful traffic morons, cars and their drivers' habits that annoy me. Ho this one I just love.

Say you're driving down the highway and you just happen to be going a comfortable speed that is faster than quite a few of the cars and all the Semi trucks, you're not the fastest thing on the road and your pleased with that, but you feel it is safer for you, the driver passing quite a bit of traffic on the right, to stay in one lane, A.K.A the left, fast lane. (P.S. this is me. I tend to drive around 80 mph in the 70 mph zones. Any faster and it's more than my poor wallet would like to deal with should I get caught.) Now this other car comes up on your rear end really fast. They are annoyed that you won't get over (dude, I won't. I'm going 80 and I maintain that staying in one lane is safer than zooming in and out of them.) so they flash their brights at you and ride your ass. (I hate this!)

Now if you were me, you would ignore their unsafe hint. flashing brights at anybody is annoying and can be temperarily blinding making the person you might be annoyed with nervous. This will not cause them to speed up, (at least I never do) and it won't make them get over (again safer to stay in one lane). All it is likely to do is make them slow down, precisely the opposite of what Speedy Gonzales wants to happen. (sometimes the very reason for doing it! I'm vindictive when what you do endangers the lives of myself and those around me because of your impatience. And it is dangerous. Why else would Tailgating be illegal? And supposing you flashed your stupid brights at night and REally did temperarily blind someone. Just what everybody needs, a blind person behind a several ton hurtling mass of metal in the middle of traffic. I don't need anybody to show me the after pictures of the accident!) SEriuosly, ten over the speed limit is more than enough, and if you must go faster than that be prepared to go around the people that aren't crazy! Besides, you're less likely to get caught in the right hand lane than the left anyway. And if you can't easily go around the 80 mph joe that might possibly be me, slow your ass down! Traffic is too thick for that kind of speed.

Just a thought. This is one of the most annoying things that happens to me on my way to and from work. And I promise you at least one drive around my shift happens in the dark. The brights are just damned annoying. And just because you think I should be on the right doesn't mean I care. If I'm passing Semi trucks at a pretty good clip I'm going to sit in that damned left lane and use the wonderfulness of my cruise control so get over it! Nyah!

Rumiko TAkahashi, I will not make exceptions for even you! Or any of the race car driver youkai you invented. Becuase I think they would all drvie about 100+ mph. Any slower and they might as well get out of the car and push. heheh. Especially Kouga! That guy has no patience to speak of.

P.S. We had a wonderful, glorious green Christmas, HAH! Take that you rotten snow!

**Perpetual Motion**

Sesshoumaru's estimate of how things would stand when he awoke was proven accurate when he opened his golden eyes.

Aki had not stayed where he'd left her. Of course not, that would be entirely too easy. She had completely escaped the confines of the chamber, not that he'd expected any different.

Aki couldn't bear to stay in one place too long, despite her being unconscious for the duration of her stay. At least it always seemed that way to Sesshoumaru.

The taiyoukai pushed himself off the floor with a silent groan; sitting in the same position for days on end wasn't very wise. Not that he would allow such minor stiffness to deter him from finding Aki, Sesshoumaru needed to locate her and reassure himself that she was well like he needed the air he breathed.

Worrying for her constantly was beginning to become an ingrained behavior for him. He worried after her when he woke up, when he fought, when Aki was right in front of him and constantly when she wasn't. Sesshoumaru even worried about her in his sleep, he'd never actually had that happen before. He suspected the day he stopped worrying about her would be the day she died and passed beyond all hope of reversing her death's permanency.

Sesshoumaru was in no hurry for this to occur, therefore he chased after the missing female poste haste.

The inu youkai had to force his heart to continue beating normally the moment he stepped out of the secluded room that he had taken over upon arrival, for Aki was no where in sight. And not only was she still missing, but the door to the great cold and wet outdoors was slightly open.

Now this could mean any number of things from a member of the large group seeking a private moment behind a frozen bush or an intruder of malicious persuasion gaining entrance with intent to either kidnap or do harm. But Sesshoumaru just knew it was the work of Aki on some hair-brained mission to drive him utterly out of his head.

How did he know this? Because Fred was gone and the undead miko was calmly preparing a fresh batch of soft rice with something a bit more tempting. It should be well known by now that a conscious Aki was a pickier eater than the unconscious version, a fact duly noted by taiyoukai at a previous point in time. Thus he knew that Aki had been through the crowded common room full of anyone who wasn't live or a child or female. Apparently the mole youkai's dwelling, while big enough to house a close family of six easily enough, it was not quite big enough for this large a group of fully-grown people. It was good to be an instinct driven taiyoukai upon occasion. It had assured him the largest private room to himself, though now that Aki was awake, some shifting might be done to free up the common room of sleepers.

Not that all that mattered just yet, he still had an injured female to find.

Sesshoumaru stalked across the outer room to the slightly opened door, not bothering to make sure he didn't step on anyone. It's not like Inuyasha deserved such consideration after causing Aki injury.

He stepped out of the dwelling with a crunch in the snow before snapping the door shut behind him to cut off Inuyasha's tirade in its infancy. He didn't care what the hanyou had to say. He never said anything important anyway.

The layer of white snow glowed under the reflected light of the brilliant quarter moon, conveniently illuminating the area so that Aki's footprints in the shallow whiteness stood out starkly as dark patches of exposed earth betrayed her passage. His path was clearly marked and easily followed and he tracked down his elusive prey. That is, until he encountered a patch of ground completely uncovered of snow. His number one clue had been utterly decimated, not that he couldn't have tracked her anyway. It just wasn't common to find some random patch of forest cleared of all the snow on the ground.

Conveniently the explanation for this oddity was still at work within view. Better than just answering his unformed question his search was ended as well. Aki was the one who had cleared away the snow and was still clearing it by rolling it into a ball of some substance.

AS he watched she hefted the ball up to stack atop two others of increasingly greater size. Sesshoumaru didn't understand the point of this exercise. Why bother to stack balls of snow?

Aki's face was flushed with the cold and exertion. Her breath fogged the air in harsh gasps and pants. Her fingers, naked to the frosty temperature and snow, looked a little blue against the moon-glazed ball of white. She wasn't clothed properly for this activity though she seemed determined to finish the project regardless of the violent shivers marching down her spine.

"And what are you going to use to clothe the stupid thing Aki?" Aki's ghost companion demanded in a reasonable, if slightly annoyed, voice.

Aki didn't bother to reply as she searched out some suitable dead fall to use. Sesshoumaru watched as she stuck them in the middle-sized snow globe in a facsimile of arms.

The inu youkai crept forward in curiosity as the strange snow sculpture began to make a little more sense in its appearance though not in its purpose.

"You know it's not a proper snow man without a face. You don't have any extra buttons or coal, not even a carrot," Fred continued to talk.

So the monstrosity was a snowman? Sesshoumaru raised his eyebrow at the freestanding tower of frozen water. If it was meant to be a man, it was a grotesque one at best.

Aki searched for some appropriately sized rocks, a task made all the easier by the ground laid bare of its white blanket. She placed the stones in place of a mouth and eyes. Then the former tutor bent to tear up some of the browned grasses. She intended to make something out of the woven or braided foliage to dress her snowman in like a proper gentleman.

That's when the cold caught up with her. Her hands were to cold to bend the way she needed them to for her project. Aki grunted in frustration.

"HA! Now will you go back inside before you make yourself ill?" the ghost nagged her.

Sesshoumaru shook his head at the dead human. Aki wouldn't just give up like that despite the fact her task would grow in difficulty the longer she stayed out in the cold.

Sesshoumaru reached over to the bunch of grass in Aki's numb fingers and handed her the thick tail end of a bunch of it to hold. Then the inu youkai proceeded to work the mess into a long thick braid, being unable to produce a finer weave.

"why are you standing out in the cold?" Sesshoumaru asked gently as he continued to work.

"I n-needed to prove that it-t was r-real," Aki answered, stuttering from the cold induced chatter of her teeth. "The p-pain of cold w-wouldn't have Regis-stered with the spell in p-place." She glanced at her unfinished snow creation before adding, "I wouldn't have b-been able to b-build it before."

Sesshoumaru nodded minutely. It would be hugely unlikely the mole children would have known what such a strange thing was without Aki explaining it first, and there was no chance she would have had the ability to do so if the rotten brats still had the power of the beads.

"Why a snowman?" he asked to keep her talking.

"It w-was the only th-thing I c-could think of besides th-throwing snowb-balls through Fred's head," she smiled mischievously and pointed towards a white splat of snow on a nearby tree.

He chuckled quietly in response to both the thought of cold, frigid snow flying through the ghost's head and at the surge of relief he felt at considering such behavior to be a good indication that Aki was going to be just fine.

Sesshoumaru finished the braid and handed it to Aki for whatever she intended to use it for.

Aki wrapped the thick weed braid around the "neck" of the snowman like a scarf. She then arranged a mess of grass on the top of the round head to simulate hair before stepping back to view her handy work.

"That is the ugliest snowman I have ever seen," Fred declared with feeling.

"You're j-just jealous that h-he's cuter than y-you," Aki shrugged him off. "N-now stop insulting m-my snowman before h-he develops a c-complex."

"What should we call the monstrosity?" Fred asked. "We could call him Igor Calvin Cull, I.C. Cull," the ghost laughed.

"Well you've l-lost the right to n-name him, being al b-beastly like that," Aki sighed, talking through chattering teeth was tiring. She stared consideringly at the piled snow. "I h-hereby name thee Manuel the F-frosted and we shall call him T-Timmy for short."

"How came he gets to be called Timmy?" Fred demanded in annoyance. "Why do you give the inanimate objects the good names?"

"Oh Sh-shut up!" Aki grumbled at her dead friend. "You're just upset you got stuck with F-Fred and couldn't get out-t of it."

"Is this done?" Sesshoumaru asked the female desirous of returning to the sheltered warmth of their temporary dwelling. Aki was looking decidedly cold and he was certain prolonged exposure would be extremely detrimental to her uncertain health.

"I sup-pose," Aki sighed. She stepped into the warm line of Sesshoumaru's body and hugged him gently. "Thank you f-for helping me finish. I n-needed to finish it."

Sesshoumaru wrapped his arms around her and squeezed Aki carefully as he rubbed his cheek over her hair. He rocked her absently while running his claws through her pale locks. The inu youkai took in a deep breath and let it out silently in contentment; Aki's scent was strong on the crisp frigid air. He was tempted to pick her up and run off with her. Once they went back to the decidedly annoying group there would be more interfering distractions than a single noisy ghost. But the closest shelter was the mole youkai's residence, and it housed the group, so he would just have to put up with the collective nuisances there contained. Sesshoumaru would not risk Aki's health over something so minor as such guaranteed annoyances.

"All right, enough of that," Fred grumbled. "Get your derriere indoors and out of those wet clothes."

Sesshoumaru glared at the ghost before stepping away from Aki to _really_ look at her clothes. Fred had not been lieing or even exaggerating just to get a reaction. Aki's clothes _were_ wet to the elbow on her arms and up to mid-thigh on her legs.

The look on his face made Aki laugh. "Well, snow is b-basically water, you kn-now," she told him.

The inu youkai just shook his head at her; "You have a strange predilection for getting your attire wet, though doing so with snow is not as common. You usually seem to prefer rain." He prodded her into movement with a hand on her arm.

"Hey, l-last time wasn't my fault. I told you all the s-stuff in the air throws me off," Aki defended herself.

"That's why they have weather forecast," Fred declared pointedly, having been filled in about the adventures on the other side of the well. "And you can't blame the language. They use pictures to illustrate what they're saying."

"I'm going to learn how to b-beat the crud out of you s-someday," Aki threatened with a growl. "You know I didn't have the time to sit and watch TV. I never do."

"Sure you do," Fred disagreed as he floated behind his anchor. "You just have to turn it on while you're arguing with other people."

"That has got t-to be the stupidest thing you've ever s-said," Aki rolled her eyes as Sesshoumaru caught her when she stumbled over a set of exposed tree roots. Her feet were numb and her body was stiffening with the cold. Thankfully the doorway to warmth came into view quickly.

The former tutor wasn't particularly happy to spend more time in the place of her torment but it couldn't be helped. There wasn't much else in the area to offer shelter, especially not on par with the mole Youkai's hot spring warmed home. Only the front room needed the fire, all the other rooms were situated close enough to the steam filled cave of the spring to be kept comfortably warm.

When Aki's steps faltered a second time as her own benumbed feet got in her way, she thought perhaps a warm bath was in order once she made it inside.

Sesshoumaru was thinking the same thing, only the bath he envisioned involved two people doing a great deal more than washing up. He groaned silently to himself as he slid open the door for Aki to enter, his promise was turning out to be a great deal more annoying than Inuyasha was in a fight. Aki's curse had better be taken care of very quickly or he would be in serious danger of breaking his word.

"Aki!" the relieved breath of her name escaped from every direction the moment said woman stepped into view. Apparently Inuyasha was extremely loud and vocal in protest of Sesshoumaru's nonchalant brush off previously, because everyone was now awake and crowding the main room.

Whatever they had previously been doing was now dropped as all attention was focused on the source of several days worth of worry.

"What's everybody doing up at this time of the night?" Aki asked mildly.

"I suspect Inuyasha was inconsiderate and woke them after I left," Sesshoumaru surmised.

Kikyou snorted at his "inconsiderate" comment, but didn't say anything about it. "Aki come eat," the miko called.

Aki glanced in her direction and shook her head; she was too numb and tired for food. Sesshoumaru growled softly and pushed her towards the miko.

"Not until I've gotten a both and into some dry clothes," Aki growled at the pushy male. Perhaps her appetite would return when she was warm enough to feel her hunger.

"Why are your clothes wet?" Kikyou demanded sharply over the din of noise everyone else had created.

Aki rolled her eyes at the sudden quiet, apparently everybody wanted to know. "Snow turns into water when it melts," she drawled.

"No kidding!" Fred mocked her.

"I'm totally serious!" Aki replied with wide eyes.

"As a heart attack?" Fred asked.

"Aki!" Kikyou interrupted their exchange.

"What?" Aki blinked at the miko.

"The snow wasn't deep enough to cause your clothing to become that wet," the dead woman pointed out.

"Well sure, if all she had done was walk around and stand in place, but who would do something that boring?" Fred asked sarcastically. "A grown up would, that's who. An adult that knew it would be a bad idea to get all cold and wet."

"Aki is a grown up!" Azusa pointed out.

"Really?" Fred lowered his eyes to the child. "Then how did Aki's clothes get wet?"

"She was attacked by a snow monster!" Shippou exclaimed.

"Poor Aki!" Rin cried in response.

"We should go beat up the snow monster for attacking her!" Azusa yelled.

"Fred, you are impossible," Aki groaned.

"Ah! Aki's getting sick already!" Fred declared in answer.

"Oh no!" Azusa cried with worry. The little girl bolted forward to latch onto the older woman. "Ah! She's cold to the touch!"

"What should we do?" Rin wailed beginning to panic.

"Get some blankets!" Yumi suggested franticly.

"I think we'd be better off beating up the snow monster," Shippou grumbled.

"Fred," Aki growled even as Sesshoumaru had to prevent her fall. "If you don't fix this I'm going to rename you Frank, and use all the bad jokes that come with the name."

"Which way did the snow monster go?" Shippou demanded. "Inuyasha will go beat him up!"

"Hey leave me out of your delusions!" Inuyasha yelled.

"You're all so stupid!" Youta laughed over the noise. "There's no such thing as snow monsters!"

"Like we'd actually believe a moron like you!"

Yumi somehow managed to smack everybody with the blankets in her hurry to get them over to Aki who was still standing rather close to the door.

The chaos Fred created was a recipe for disaster as was made obvious the moment Yumi tripped over a bit of excess blanket, plowing into Rin and Azusa. The three-girl battering ram knocked Aki and Sesshoumaru through the thankfully still open door to land on the bottom of a rather large pile up.

"What on earth is going on?" a feminine voice asked from beyond the heap in the snow.

Everybody looked up at the woman staring down at Sesshoumaru and Aki. The inu youkai growled up at her, trying to see the detachment around the sparks in his eyes. If he had felt the impact this much, he hated to think how badly Aki felt.

"Kagura, get me out of here," Aki cried around a couple of painful breaths.

"Give me your hand," the red-eyed youkai said gently.

Aki somehow managed to free a hand from the tangle of blankets and limbs not her own. Kagura bent down and wrapped her fingers around the partial youkai's exposed wrist and pulled the poor female free of the pile.

Aki curled around the pain in her ribs the moment she was able to do so. The damage from Inuyasha's hit hadn't quite healed completely and was still tender _before_ three little girls had landed on them.

Kagura knelt down and pressed along Aki's sides to test the bones under the skin. "Poor you," Kagura clucked and pulled the other woman to her feet. "A good soak in some warm water to help the muscles and warm you up. Then a firm wrap of material to help bind the damaged ribs properly in place."

"Sounds like sweet heaven," Aki gasped painfully. "Too bad there's so many people in the way."

"I could blow them away," Kagura offered.

"With a yay-hay, blow the man down," Fred sang.

Aki sighed, "Better not. It'll probably come back to bite me in the ass before I make it through the door."

"Now Aki," Fred began. "You know Sesshoumaru won't allow anyone else to bite your ass but him." The ghost smirked at the glares sent his way.

"Why would Sesshoumaru-sama want to bite Aki-chan's bottom?" Rin asked Azusa.

"Why would anybody want to bite her bottom?" Azusa countered.

"Maybe Aki tastes good," Miroku chuckled and ducked as Sango took a swing at him.

"Maybe she tastes like candy?" Shippou suggested.

"She probably tastes like chicken," Fred shrugged.

"Why would you suggest something like that?" the delinquent monk asked.

"It's what all the cannibals say," the ghost shrugged.

"What's a can-bull?" Rin asked the tall youkai who was finally regaining his feet. Sesshoumaru glared at the dead human. The little girl did not need anything more to have nightmares about.

"That does it! You shall hence forth be known as- Ouch!" Aki yelped mid-threat. "What'd you do that for?"

Youta made a face up at her as she rubbed her arm where his teeth had clamped over her skin. "You don't taste very good," he declared cheekily.

Kagura snorted and rolled her eyes as Aki had to sweep the boy behind her. Sesshoumaru's growl did not bode well for the little brat. The wind user shook her head as she grabbed the little biter firmly to keep him out of reach of the inu youkai fighting against Aki's attempts to restrain him.

"Youta!" Yumi gasped, scandalized. "You know you're not supposed to bite people. What would mama say?"

"Mama's not here is she," the boy brushed his sister off, further igniting her wrath.

The siblings then proceeded to squabble and fight while Kagura desperately tried to keep her hold on the one brat and separate the two at the same time.

"Unhand my children, you spawn of evil!" the mole father finally managed a clear view out the doorway. He tired to force his way through the crowd in the way, but only succeeded in knocking over Shippou and tripping over the blankets Azusa had been trying to pick up.

"No," the girl groaned. "You're getting the blankets all wet."

"They are my blankets anyway!" The mole youkai yelled hotly before laying into the human child with a long list of insults.

Aki's shivers were beginning to set back in and the chaos was more excitement than she could handle. Sesshoumaru was still trying to push past her to beat Youta for biting her and now Azusa was being battered with a verbal onslaught the poor child didn't deserve. Rin was standing altogether too close to Yumi and Youta's argument and she just knew Kagura's temperament was not the best for dealing with the situation. And to top it all off, Shippou was still going on about the snow monster when he thought he could catch an ear, Miroku and Fred were debating how she tasted, Kagome was holding Sango back from killing the monk, and for some strange reason Kikyou and Jaken were stuck in a heated discussion that had Inuyasha fascinated.

There were certainly more reasons than one Aki preferred to travel alone.

Aki immediately reached a decision and decked Sesshoumru. She then moved to thump three moles and a monk for good measure. "Now that I have your attention can we please get everybody inside before it starts to snow again?"

Sesshoumaru looked up at her from where she'd knocked him rather unexpectedly on his ass. He was so surprised to find himself on the ground once more he hardly even noticed the snow melting into his clothing. He did notice that Aki didn't looks so good.

"You heard me, everybody inside," Aki repeated. "You too Windy."

"That servant of Naraku will not set foot in my house!" The adult mole youkai declared emphatically.

Aki glared at him flatly, "Yes. She will."

"don't argue with her stupid," Inuyasha dragged the protesting parent further into the common room to open more space for the others to come in.

The children scrambled inside, Yumi and Youta still rubbing their heads where Aki had thumped them.

Aki offered Sesshoumaru a hand but Kagura snatched it and offered her own instead. Sesshoumaru quirked a brow at her behavior. "Aki is in pain simply from breathing, she should not be disciplining or helping others." The wind youkai explained shortly.

"It's not that bad," Aki protested.

"Kanna has told me never to trust those words," Kagura smiled. "Especially from you. You would do well to seek out that bath now."

Aki sighed tiredly, "Fine. Let me hunt out some dry clothes and I'll look into it."

"Do not go alone," Kikyou ordered.

"How inept do you think I am," Aki grumbled and demanded the whereabouts of her bag.

"I moved it to the room with the spring in it," Kagome answered. "I'll join you if you like."

"I will too if you nee-" Sango knocked the monk flat before he could finish.

Aki winced at the sight. "I think Sango needs you to keep her from killing Miroku, but thanks anyway, Kagome." Besides, she was likely to have other company for bath time. Quite possibly a lot of company now that she thought about it.


	6. Packing It In

I guess I could've gotten away without posting last week for all the attention it got - or rather didn't get! heck, if I had skipped last week I could've guarranteed you reading material until valentines day, but no! I had to do what I said I would do because that's what good Authors do. I said I'd post and I did, and nobody cared! WEll, just for that I'm going to change my posting schedule to once every two weeks! How about that!

Seriously, I'm kidding. Though, I nearly didn't manage to get this chapter up. Our internet connection got the hiccups so that even when we (ahem! My dad) fixed it, it would only work for about two minutes before it quit again! Thankfully, when i had the time, I fixed it... and it worked at least long enough for me to do all my internet chores and post this wonderful chapter you're all going to ignore again.

And now for something completely different:

Did you now that they have scientifically proven that the more women know, the better they sleep, but the more men learn the worse they sleep? I guess that means men should stay neanderthauls and women should become braniacs (at least the ones who aren't already), the world would be better off once people start getting more restful sleep to help keep everybody's tempers even. Women would win every argument by virtue of being better informed and Men would win every fight by virtue of superior strength (assuming the guys didn't get lazy on top of avoiding learning things). I'm envisioning a utopia full of lean buff guys (all good looking because only men with the best traits would be picked and no woman in her right mind would neglect the looks department!) Super braniac women and possibly world peace because the guys woudln't be in charge anymore!

And to think it was science that lead us to the future! ARgue with that one Rumiko Takahashi! You can't...though Sesshoumaru might try, heheh.

**Packing it in**

Aki was more or less correct in her assessment of the near future as was demonstrated by the group of people that followed her into the steam filled chamber that held the hot spring.

It was no surprise that Sesshoumaru followed her. She would have been surprised if he hadn't as she suspected the inu youkai planned to stick to her like glue until they left the area and went their separate ways.

Kagura followed her too, but she suspected it was more a comfort issue than anything else. Aki was pretty much the only person in the group that had never seriously fought with Kagura with the intention of doing her actual harm, and never held a grudge against her for following orders. So really, it wasn't much of a surprise.

Of course where Aki and Sesshoumaru went, so too did Rin and Azusa. And, as is the case with girls with new friends, Yumi followed as well, determined to stick with the others this early in their developing friendship.

Aki sighed in the muggy air as she found her bag. Given a choice she would love to kick out some of her stalkers. Heck, she might even love to be violent about it, but she wasn't psychotic yet so she reeled in her irritation. Her bath was likely to require every bit of patience she could muster as it wasn't likely to be very relaxing. Three kids near water negated the very possibility of a peaceful experience. Of course, just letting Sesshoumaru tag along was asking for trouble, as she very much doubted he needed the added temptation of her being very naked. As for Kagura, Aki hadn't spent enough time with Windy to be able to guess at her behavior.

Aki sighed and painfully shrugged out of her wet flannel shirt to find that whomever had dressed her hadn't bothered to figure out the clasps of her bra and simply bound her chest in the same cloth as her ribs. The wrapping suddenly loosened and she glanced over her should to see Sesshoumaru standing there. "Thank you," she murmured and he nodded as he helped finish unwrapping it from her torso so that she wouldn't have to twist as much to do it herself.

A Great splash indicated that the girls had finished undressing and entered the artificial pool built into the rock beside the natural basin formed by the spring originally. Rin and Azusa began to splash cheerfully at each other as Yumi shyly moved to join them.

Kagura eyed them from the side she was already resting calmly against. She frowned, as their play grew impossibly more energetic instead of slowly subsiding in intensity.

Aki shook her head as she finally stepped free of the clinging cloth of her wet pants, shivering slightly despite the heat in the room before slipping into the warm water.

"I saw your snow sculpture," Kagura's voice floated in the humid air. "What is it?'

"It's a study in cultural diversity and freedom," Aki replied cryptically. Sesshoumaru smirked from where he sat against the wall watching them.

Kagura snorted, "It's ugly, whatever you call it."

"Timmy is not ugly!" Aki huffed with mild indignation. "Why do people keep saying that?"

"Maybe because it's true," Kagura suggested mockingly despite not being 100 percent sure who or what "Timmy" was.

"One of these days some of these people you've insulted are going to come back to get you for it," Aki warned. "And I'm just going to sit back and watch."

"Well at least I won't be alone," Kagura shrugged and changed the subject. "Kanna requests that you refrain from playing in the snow."

"Does she still feel the echo of my pain?" Aki asked with concern.

"Her and Kohaku both, though the boy does not complain about it," Kagura nodded. "Kanna usually doesn't mind it so much, but apparently she really doesn't like the cold."

"I wish I had known that would be a side affect when I gave them that piece of soul," Aki sighed. "Why doesn't Kikyou complain about it too?"

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened as he realized what they were talking about. Aki had seemingly been handing out pieces of her soul like small treats to children. Somehow he just knew that couldn't be good for Aki's health.

"It is possible that the dead miko does not suffer the effects as much because she already had a piece of Kagome's soul and was already dead. She and Kohaku had managed to live with healthy connections to their souls several years before you met them," Kagura pointed out. "But Kanna has always had her soul withheld from her. Naraku made her that way. You made it so that she had a strong enough tie to her own soul to feel things properly and thus she feels what you feel as well. Or at least part of it. Kohaku does too because your soul is keeping him alive.

"It's not a bad explanation," Aki pondered aloud. "But why do they only seem to feel the pain?"

"Perhaps pain is the only emotion impersonal and sharp enough to echo so strongly," Kagura shrugged. "Or Kanna really doesn't mind when your joy and pleasure travels to her."

Aki grinned ruefully as color not due to the waters heat painted her skin. "Well, then I'll have to apologize for that too."

"Don't bother," Kagura glared at the noisy children still splashing away in the water. "Kanna rather likes being able to feel. It helps her develop a sense of self that was lacking before. Besides, she deserves a little pain for being so cheeky when she successfully foils Naraku's attempts to observe you once again."

Aki chuckled carefully; not wanting to disrupt the comfortable painless feeling the water had produced in her ribs. "I'm glad she's enjoying herself."

"Whenever he asks to see you she shows images of leaves falling, or ripples on a pond, a thunder storm, or fish jumping from a stream. Once she even found a grass fire to show him," Kagura smirked pleased that the bastard in control of her heart suffered some frustration. "Kanna won't even let me see what she shows when he asks because it's so hard to keep a straight face when she does it. I don't' know how she manages to keep her face so blank."

"What explanations does he come up with for this inability of his anyway?" Aki asked.

"He keeps his own counsel about it," Kagura dismissed it with a shrug. "We were just lucky he hadn't tried to see you before Kanna developed this problem."

"This problem with belligerence and misdirection," Aki declared dryly, watching as the girls finally began to tire of their game. "Soap's over there kids," she called to them. Hopefully the children would wash up, get bored and leave. She didn't really expect it to happen, but one could dream.

"Kohaku's gotten really good at foiling plans with minimal risk and effort," Kagura observed. "He's got Naraku convinced it has something to do with distance and memory. Hakudoushi's slightly suspicious though."

"Why hasn't the big bad guy sent that monstrosity at me?" Aki wondered.

""It might have something to do with you throwing that horseshoe at Entee and startling the rotten beast," Kagura guessed with amusement.

"Well, he shouldn't have tried to drop it on me," Aki sniffed.

"Kohaku was certain Hakudoushi wouldn't go near you with Entee because you might steal the rotten hell horse," Kagura laughed.

"What would I do with a horse of brimstone and damnation? Destruction and massacres aren't really my thing," Aki snorted as the other woman rose from the now calm pool of water. Rin, Azusa and Yumi had already returned to the common room having grown bored listening to the two women talk. Aki pushed herself onto the ledge of the pool slowly.

Kagura quickly dressed and paused as Aki slid back into the water. "What's wrong," she demanded.

Aki gave the detachment a strained smile. "Just need a little more time in the water is all," the former English tutor answered quietly. "Now that my muscles aren't so numb they're starting to protest the last couple weeks."

Kagura nodded, "You strained yourself fighting the mole's orders."

"It's no big deal," Aki muttered, lowering her gaze to the water.

"Move over closer to the actual spring, the water is warmer there," Kagura suggested.

"I'm fine here thanks," Aki answered quickly.

Kagura blinked at the partial youkai before nodding dismissively, "Suit yourself." The wind user then turned to walk into the chaos of the main room.

Aki inhaled the moist air carefully, not wanting to irritate her ribs further. A disturbance on the surface of the water drew her attention from the pool to find that Sesshoumaru had quietly joined her in the water.

"You should have said you were in pain," Sesshoumaru admonished her.

"Why? Saying it out loud won't change anything and it isn't that bad to begin with," Aki attempted to shrug and froze mid-motion as pain sparked along her nerve endings.

"It is bad enough," Sesshoumaru concluded and collected her in his arms before moving to the warmer side of the pool. "You should have just beaten the whelp. He is not worth your pain."

"That's your opinion," Aki hissed as the hot water began to seep into her abused muscles and ribs.

"The hanyou would have survived the beating," the taiyoukai growled firmly as he rubbed at the muscles of her back and shoulders.

"And I will survive a little pain," Aki replied tiredly.

"But it is not a 'little pain'," Sesshoumaru growled. He greatly disliked for Aki to feel so much pain.

"I will get over it," she growled in return. Aki groaned as she forced herself to move out of the water's gentle embrace. She needed to eat something before Kikyou came in to force it down her throat.

Sesshoumaru silently left the water as well. It was quite clear that Aki would be in pain whether he won the argument or not. The only thing he could do was try to reduce the amount she suffered. So when she dug out her towel he relieved her of it to dry her off with it. He made certain to be especially gentle around her multi-colored rib cage.

Eventually Aki usurped control of the drying cloth and wrapped it around her hair before stepping into her underwear and the leggings she had packed for this trip. She had intended to wear them under her jeans if the weather got cold enough, but they would just have to serve without the added layer, as her jeans were very wet.

It didn't take her long to give up on wearing her bra. The thing just required too much awkward movement to bother with.

Sesshoumaru mentally shook his head as he watched her attempting to finish dressing before collecting the wrapping for her ribs from the floor. He stepped behind her and wordlessly started to wrap her torso snugly.

She leaned her head back to rest on his shoulder as he finished his task. Her eyes were closed and her breathing easy as she rested. "Thank you," she breathed gently. He rubbed his striped cheek against the side of her face and squeezed her carefully before she pulled away to don her sweat jacket and zip it up.

Aki dug out something else and handed it to him. "Your clothes got wet when we fell in the snow. I don't have any pants for you, but I think yours weren't too bad," Aki told him when he raised a questioning eyebrow at the bundle of white fabric. "It's yours so it should fit."

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened imperceptibly. This was the garment Tama had given to Aki on that day he first made Aki his mate. It seemed to have been an eternity since then. The inu youkai didn't want to accept the shirt. He liked when she wore it and it comforted him that she had it, but she would insist he take it. He supposed he could find comfort in the fact she worried about him and his health.

The taiyoukai suppressed a sigh and dressed in the garment quickly, Aki was sure to attempt something unnecessary while he wasn't watching. He was right. Sesshoumaru found her with the straps of her bag wrapped around her wrist in preparation to lift it and take it with her, the fool.

Every movement caused her pain without her lifting anything unneeded. He wasn't about to let her do something so likely to increase her pain. "Leave it," he ordered softly, tangling his fingers with the strap to drag it from her arm. "You aren't going anywhere today." Certainly not when she was in that kind of pain anyway.

"But," she began only to stop as he shook his head and covered her mouth with his.

He probably shouldn't have kissed her in reality, not when the memory of her naked skin was so fresh. Sesshoumaru had behaved himself, controlled himself, but he had desired to kiss her in reality since he woke up and she wouldn't' stop arguing. And kissing Aki was much too engaging to try to think up adequate reasons for the action.

The knowledge of Aki's bruised ribs and strained muscles kept him from taking it further. But it was still several minutes before he reluctantly disengaged the connection and cuddled her to his chest. "You said it was going to snow, so why can you not stay here a while and leave your bag where it is?" he asked her reasonably.

Aki sighed haltingly before replying, "It's actually going to storm, so nobody should be going anywhere." She stepped away slowly, "I suppose I can leave it here."

Sesshoumaru cupped her cheek with his palm and nodded his thanks before they turned to rejoin the multi-special circus awaiting them.

"Aki get over here and eat right now!" Kikyou ordered the moment she saw the partial youkai.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Aki grumbled petulantly. Sesshoumru had to force the smirk form his face. It amused him greatly when Aki gave others a hard time.

"Sit down and shut up," Kikyou gave a fair imitation of a growl.

"If I shut up, I can't eat," Aki pointed out.

"I'd shut up if I were you Aki, that crap she plans to feed you is worse than starvation," Kagura declared.

"You stay out of this, spawn of Naraku," Kikyou glared at the detachment.

"No fair dragging parents into this," Aki scolded the miko.

"Nobody is responsible for their own origins," Kagome added. "It's what we do with our lives beyond that which we are in control of, to a certain extent anyway."

"Shut up! Aki sit!" Kikyou ordered again and prepared to feed Aki the mush in her bowl.

"Kikyou, I can feed myself," Aki protested.

"Not today you can't," Kikyou replied flatly. "Now open up."

"Yeah Aki, you know the drill," Fred cut in. "The airplane is coming into the hangar!" he announced gleefully and proceeded to make motor noises as the chopsticks neared his friend's mouth.

Aki burst out laughing. "Ow! Oh don't make me laugh!" tears streamed from her eyes as her laughter caused her pain despite the joy it sounded like.

Kagome was giggling as well, being the only other person to get the joke for what it was. The rest of the group stared at them strangely only serving to make the situation seem more hilarious.

Eventually the two managed to calm their laughter as Fred kindly ceased making the noises under Kikyou and Sesshoumaru's fiercest glares. "Are you done?" the dead miko asked as bursts of laughter like hiccups slowly subsided in the partial youkai.

"No more air plane noises Fred," Aki wiped her eyes. "Please, no more."

"All right, all right. No more, I got it," the ghost shrugged.

"What's an 'airu pran'?" Shippou asked.

"Please ask for an explanation later, Shippou," Sango requested. "Aki will never get to eat if you demand an explanation now."

"Okay," the boy nodded firmly.

Kikyou glared at Fred a few moments longer as the ghost pretended to look innocent. Finally she raised her laden chopsticks and bid Aki to open up.

"Hey Aki," Fred began blandly as Kikyou paused not trusting him with the ability to speak. Just as she resumed her motion the ghost continued, "Two words: Choo-choo!"

Aki snorted and dissolved into painful laughter once again. "Oh that hurts! Don't make me laugh!" she gasped through the pain of her renewed laughter. Ugh, even her smile hurt.

"Fred!" Kagome giggled. "That was so bad!"

"I don't get it," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Join the club," Miroku remarked, using a phrase Kagome often did. "The rest of us here do not understand the joke either."

"What the hell is going on in here?" A gruff voice demanded from the door. "Kagome?"

Everybody turned to find a certain wolf prince standing in the doorway to the outside. "Kouga!" Kagome exclaimed.

It was then that Kouga spotted the detachment he'd scented some time back in close proximity to the woman he'd claimed. This would not do. The wolf youkai plowed through the group to take out Kagura, stepping on Inuyasha for good measure in the process.

Aki had moved more quickly than she should have in order to prevent the impending blood shed. She shoved Kagura out of the way and used the ookami's own momentum to push him to the floor. "Behave yourself," she admonished him. "Attacking in such a crowded room is sure to cause injury to more than just your prey. Or do you not care if you hurt children and your so-called 'love' while you attack someone."

Kouga didn't like being told how to behave any more than Inuyasha did. "Shut up!" the wolf growled and threw his open hand into her belly to shove her out of the way.

Aki yelped and fell to the floor on hands and knees. Her ribs throbbed as she struggled to breath around the pain. Sparks floated across her vision, threatening to either blind her or pull her into unconsciousness.

"Just breathe Aki," Fred's steady voice whispered in her ear. "Just like at home, you need to breathe, slow and even."

Sesshoumaru gathered the injured female into his arms and wrapped as much of himself around her as possible. Careful of her much abused middle, he leaned her against his chest for her to better hear his heart beat and even breathing. He did not care about the ookami. Besides, Kouga's threat had been thoroughly dealt with.

All that could be seen of the foolish prince was a pack of agitated wolves, four angry children, an angry time traveling teenager, a hanyou, and two wolf brothers, each quite angry with the youkai being smother by their weight.

Kagura wisely stayed out of it. No way was she getting too close to the wolves. Instead she moved to stand next to the inu youkai trying to help Aki. She tapped his shoulder with her fan and nearly gasped when he turned eyes rimmed with youkai red. Aki's pain had him scared.

Quickly, the reluctant detachment bent to check the female over, somehow figuring out the strange device on Aki's clothing to reveal the bandaging underneath. Kagura bit back a curse as she ran her hands over the tender flesh. "She's beginning to swell," she declared. "We need to slow it, stop it somehow, to relieve her of some of the pain."

"How?" Sesshoumaru demanded roughly.

"I don't know," Kagura bit out angrily. "I only know what is wrong not how to fix it!"

Fred growled and shot his arm through the youkai in his way until his cold, ghostly palm pressed just into the wrapping over Aki's ribs. "Ice and cold reduce swelling," the spirit declared as explanation, relentlessly keeping his hand pressed where it would do the most good despite Aki's whimpering.

By the time Aki's breathing returned to normal, Kikyou had snapped the door shut while Miroku and Sango sorted out the mess of bodies wreaking havoc in the small space. Sango muscled the wolves out of the way and Miroku clunked both Inuyasha and Kouga over the head to gain their attention.

"Everyone shall calm down and discuss the situation without violence," The monk declared firmly. "There will be no fighting. Is that understood?"

"You're one to talk, monk," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Osuwari!" Kagome muttered.

"Wait until Aki regains herself before we begin," Sango said gently. The monk nodded agreeably.

"I didn't hit her that hard," Kouga grumbled in confusion.

"That is not the point, youkai," Kikyou responded waspishly. "You hit an unarmed female that had offered you no violence and some commonly understandable advice. You did this in the presence of allies who were likewise not engaged in violence."

"You attacked in an obviously peaceful and neutral environment," Sango continued. "What did you hope to accomplish?" the slayer asked evenly. "Was it your intention to cause injury without provocation?"

"She was defending that bitch! The same bitch that killed my people!" Kouga defended himself.

"I don't recall hearing Aki speak on Kagura's behalf," the purple draped monk observed blandly.

"That's because she didn't," Inuyasha growled. "She only moved to end a fight before it started and injured somebody not involved in it."

"Inuyasha," Kagome gaped at the hanyou. She was surprised he even understood what Aki had meant to do.

"And you hit Aki when she was already hurting!" Azusa yelled accusingly and lunged at the youkai that had been the cause of her terror when Aki fell. She couldn't stand to lose anyone else; she couldn't bear it.

Luckily for Kouga, a couple of wolves tripped Azusa up and prevented her from reaching her target.

"Everyone, be still," Aki's tired voice floated through the room.

"Are you all right, Aki-chan?" a teary eyed Rin asked timidly, slightly afraid of the answer.

"I'm fine –" Aki stopped when Sesshoumaru growled and Fred snarled at her. "Okay, I've been better, but I'll live," she corrected herself with an amused smile.

"Really?" Rin wiped her eyes.

"Yes, Rin. Fred is the best cold compress ever invented. Now all I need is some food in my belly and I'll be set for some stories," Aki look up at her ghostly friend.

"Well, I suppose I do owe you something for letting me feel you up," Fred laughed over the inu youkai's growl.

Kagura bent to hand Aki the bowl of food causing the incorrigible female to smile up at her. "Thanks," Aki moved her hand to the chopsticks as she teased her dead friend. "No wonder none of your girlfriends ever lasted. You were entirely too fixated on me and my unmatchable good looks!"

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Fred grinned mockingly.

"Aki put that down! You're too weak to feed yourself," Kikyou declared.

Aki and Fred rolled their eyes. "Please don't start that nonsense again. Fred won't be able to help himself," the former English tutor whined.

"Are we going to discuss the fact you're keeping company with that spawn of Naraku?" Kouga demanded.

"Be still!" Aki's eyes flashed at him. "She isn't harming anyone, and until you know the whole story I suggest you be a bit more courteous to everyone present. Think before you act, idiot.

Kouga growled at the woman only to be floored by his furred brethren once more.

"Apparently the fuzz balls agree with Aki," Fred chuckled over his shoulder.

"Fine!" the wolf prince shoved his way to his feet. "I'm leaving!" Kouga stalked across the floor to the door only to hiss quietly as the surface singed his hand. "What did you do?"

"Nobody is leaving," Aki declared boredly. "The storm comes."

"Like I care what you're imagining! Let me out bitch!" Kouga snarled.

"Kouga grow up!" Kagome shouted causing everyone, except Aki and Fred ot stare at her incredulously. "Aki is only tyring to save your stupid ass from freezing to death or getting lost! Kagura is probably still here so that she can say she lost track of Aki in the storm because she doesn't like Naraku anymore than we do!" The teenager panted from the effort of her yelling. "We're not asking you to make friends, just to refrain from violence inside these walls. Why do you have to be so difficult?"

Kouga gaped like a fish. "Kagome-nee-chan is always so kind hearted," one of the wolf brothers commented to the other.

"And Aki-san has been very generous with us too, Kouga really needn't have struck her," the other replied.

"Even the furry ones agree," the first nodded.

"Again with the fuzz balls," Aki smiled as a bunch of them moved closer to nose at her feet and knees left extended beyond Sesshoumaru's embrace. She continued chowing down as she ran her foot over the fur of the most aggressive one.

"Show them some respect!"

"That's what you said last time," Aki snorted. "They don't seem to mind, so why do you?"

Kouga didn't have an answer to that, especially not with Ginta and Hakkaku watching the pack brothers mill around Aki's feet, whining for attention. The wolf prince growled in frustration as he resigned himself to the situation gracelessly.


	7. A Feudal Era YoYo

whoa, whoa, whoa! the world is spinning... literally. seriously it is! Everyday, Day and night, night and day, will it never stop? Heheh, not that I ever really get to see the sun.

Another Wednesday. I'm so tired. I'm tired a lot for some unknown reason. I think a lot of it has to do with the continual demands of working at wal-mart right before inventory. That's right Inventory is coming up, right on Valentines day. they're already calling it the Valentines day massacre.

So now that we've established that with the new year my reviewers went AWOl, we're back to me writing what ever the hell I want to as interpretation of the silence. If you don't know what I'm talking about go back through all the AN of part one, my first reviewer didn't appear until a couple of chapters into part two and the other consistant reviewer came in a while after that.

I wonder if they died... or maybe they really are overwhelmed by my playful perfection. Not likely, maybe they just forgot how to use the computer. Or maybe FFn really is experiencing the bug problem Tootsiepop254 believes where the Chapter notices aren't being sent out and neither are the PMs I sent either. In which case, Why aren't they checking on their own? I never miss a posting day without warning and never right in the middle of a part. I even made a point of saying specifically I WOULD post as per my schedule without interruption during the holidays. If I didn't receive a chapter notice, I would check anyways.

But then, I'm like that and I, at least, think this fic is worth it.

I really could've used that extra week of writing time. I'm currently in chapter 3 of part 6, and since part 6 is only looking to have 6 chapters anyway this might seem perfectly fine... Unfortunately a couple of these chapters (chapter 1) are apparently not wanting to be written and chapter 3 is being rather finicky on this point too. So I might decide that since nobody is consistently paying attention to this fic (besides Tootsiepop254, who actually took me up on that AIM chatting) I can be evilly erradic in my posting schedule. I'll think about it on my own a little more and see how long chapter 3 want to take getting down on paper (maybe it's afraid it'll get dirty?).

I wonder if Rumiko Takahashi had this problem... I bet she did because some of her characters are down right rotten to write for! (Kouga comes to mind, that stubborn wolf! I finally got his ass mildly domesticated, but he's still a little feral.)

**A Feudal Era Yo-yo**

Envy is a natural feeling that is uncontrollable. It colors how we think and act towards each other. The level of jealousy and envy we feel decides just how much importance we give to each of our fellows.

If we feel no envy, we treat others as inconsequential for having none of the qualities or possessions we admire and desire to find in ourselves. If a person has too many of these admirable qualities, we despise them unless they have some other serious drawback or pitiable quality to counteract our envy.

Thus Kagome found herself envious of Aki wrapped in the comfortable affections of her youkai the way Kagome wished she could be with a certain dog-eared hanyou. But this feeling of jealousy lacked the usual sting that seeing Inuyasha and Kikyou together had. Quite possibly it was because Inuyasha had set Kikyou up as the image of perfection that Kagome could never achieve. Or it might be due to the fact the teenager loved Inuyasha and not his brother.

The reasons mattered little, all that mattered was that Aki was comfortably curled up in the arms of Sesshoumaru and neither was feeling obviously awkward with the contact. Kagome just knew that sort of contact would have Inuyasha pushing her away before five minutes was up. That's _if_ she managed to get that close to him without being on the brink of death, riding his back for expediency or otherwise goading him into it. All of which didn't count because the mood was always wrong and that was undeniably very important.

It was something Sango could likewise complain of, because the mood and timing was something Miroku need to work on as well.

It was strange to find that neither Fred nor Sesshoumaru appeared to have this problem shared by most of the males the girls had come across. And Kouga was included in that number, the wolf-jerk that couldn't see reason until it stood up and bit him in the ass.

Kouga on the other hand couldn't quite decide what bothered him most about his current situation. He didn't like being stuck in one place for any reason, even if he got to spend time with his lovely woman. He didn't like being told what to do, especially by a female, any female, but Aki in particular. He couldn't stand being kept in close company with the very pawn of Naraku that had dispatched so many of his people. Yeah, that Quite possibly was the worst. No wait, having to be peaceable about all these grievances was quite definitely the worst torment.

"I can't believe you would let that spawn of Naraku any where near your female," the wolf youkai grumbled darkly to Sesshoumaru as Kagura took Aki's empty bowl form distracted fingers.

"Goes to show what you know," Fred laughed.

"One does not 'let' a female do anything or be around anyone," Sesshoumaru declared evenly. "You display your inexperience and ignorance with such a statement."

"One does not allow women to do things," Miroku shrugged. "It is the other way around."

"Especially with Aki," Inuyasha grumbled.

"You guys are so bad," Kagome shook her head. "You know, more than one gender is in this room. Stop talking about us as if we're not here."

"Kagome too," Inuyasha grumbled to the side.

Aki chuckled as the ninth grader huffed at the hanyou that couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. "Sometimes it is better to let the whole world think you're stupid than to open your mouth and prove it." Kouga snickered at Inuyasha's expense before the dog boy bashed him over the head. "Osuwari!" Aki activated the beads around Inuyasha's neck. "Behave yourself, Inuyasha," she shook her head and sighed. "Kouga, it's like this: Do you want a weak mate?"

"Lord Kouga would never want a weak mate!" Ginta answered quickly.

"It is an insult to even ask that question!" Hakkaku added shortly. "To have a weak mate is to be considered weak."

"But he wants a mate he can push around," she pointed out. "He wants a female he can order about."

"Kouga also made it sound like the female in question wouldn't have a choice in the matter," Sango pondered. "Such a person would be weaker than him in all things."

"Thereby making her a target for all his enemies to strike at him through her," Kagome nodded.

"I would never allow that to happen," Kouga growled.

"You have to sleep sometime," Miroku shrugged. "And you would not be able to take her with you everywhere."

"Thus she would inevitably be killed and most likely in a very unpleasant way," Kikyou finished. "So ends the mating contract with the foolish Kouga.

Said wolf prince growled a threat at the miko, completely forgetting that he wasn't mated and whole conversation was completely hypothetical.

"On the other hand," Aki continued the conversation. "Should Kouga find a strong mate, one who is nearly equal or as strong as he is, he would not be able to push her around or order her about unless _she_ chose to allow it. It is highly unlikely for a female who is that strong and quite possibly independent would allow herself to be so treated."

"But, should an enemy seek to attack her," Sango nodded, "she would be able to defend herself and quite possibly others as well."

"Good thing Kagome-nee-san is strong," Hakkaku nodded to himself.

"She's already saved us," Ginta smiled.

"Too bad she's not going to be Kouga's mate!" Inuyasha growled with certainty.

"The hell she won't," Kouga yelled. "Kagome is my woman."

Aki snorted, "And I'm a hole in the wall."

"And I'm a spider monkey, see my tail," Fred indicated the empty air behind him.

"So if I break out a music box, will you dance?" Aki asked with a grin.

"Like a dancing pony," Fred chuckled.

"I'm confused," Shippou spoke up. "Are you a monkey or a pony?"

Aki laughed very carefully. "Don't worry, he's confused too. Wouldn't you be if you were a dead human-horse-monkey?" Fred attempted to look really pitiful while smiling at the same time. The result was so hilarious Shippou, Azusa and Rin erupted in laughter.

"That's absolutely ridiculous," Youta declared. "Nobody can be all those things!"

"I guess not," Aki frowned at the ghost. "So what are you really?"

"I guess I am the GREAT AND POWERFUL FRED!" he roared menacingly. "Able to jump through people without much effort! Capable of interacting with all dead people with ease! Speaking of which, your dad is a funny guy," the ghost commented to the silver haired brothers.

"My father was not known for his humor," Sesshoumaru said blandly to cover his surprise that the ghost had actually met the youkai in question.

"Well death can certainly free a body from his usual constraint," Fred shrugged, ignoring the ill-concealed look of hunger on Inuyasha's face. "He rather liked Aki, though. He kept saying how he would most-assuredly be jumping her bones if he were alive."

Sesshoumaru glanced down at Aki in his lap and she smiled innocently up at him. She hadn't told him she had met his father's ghost. "He only said that when he wasn't boasting about his wonderful sons," she corrected Fred.

"Hah! That only lasted until he found out we knew who he was talking about," Fred laughed. "Then he gave us the 3rd degree. He wanted to know everything, from whether Sesshoumaru had learned to use Tenseiga to what cup size Inuyasha's girlfriend was. Don't worry Kagome, I told him you had _huge_ tracks of land," Fred snickered.

Kagome flushed and found an interesting spot on the ceiling to stare at while everybody else stared at her in curiosity. They certainly didn't know what "cup size" meant and it was clear Fred hadn't really been talking about acreage

"Stop Fred," Aki scolded the ghost, "That's not something she should have to explain to her friends."

"Well, I didn't want to explain it to the old guy, but I did," Fred shrugged.

"You volunteered that information stupid," Aki shook her head. "Just like you volunteered to introduce him to my dead parents so they could swap stories and come ons, and you phrased it just like that," Aki finished before he could protest.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better Kagome's dad has been hanging out with him too and they both agree that Kagome has _HUGE_ tracks of-"

"Knock it off Fred, or I really will rename you," the partial youkai invalid cut him off.

"I don't get it," Ginta commented out loud. "What's so embarrassing about land ownership?"

"So kind of you to ask," Fred beamed over Aki's groan.

"You just had to ask," Aki grumbled. Sesshoumaru prevented her hand from meeting her forehead.

"It's simply that Kagome has _HUGE_," and Fred made sure to use the appropriate gesture for the Monty Python line, "tracks of land."

"Oh god!" Kagome groaned and attempted to hide behind her hands as the group alternately stared at her bosom or blushed in embarrassment themselves. Aki shook her head at the poor girl as Inuyasha growled threateningly at everybody else.

"Aki's bigger though," Rin pointed out. The staring switched to Aki's chest for better comparison.

"Indeed, but the old dog demon's ghost would hardly need to ask that question with her standing right in front of him," Kikyou replied evenly.

Aki made a point of staring right back at the offenders. Most of the perverted stares were quelled under the combined power of her glare and Sesshoumaru's.

Kagura tugged on the towel still wrapped around Aki's hair. "It'll never dry this way," the detachment observed dryly. "And you'll certainly catch cold if you keep it wet."

"But if I remove the towel, my clothes get wet," Aki shrugged. "I'll still get a cold from wearing wet clothing."

"I can fix that," Kagura declared.

"Fix what?" Aki's eyebrows disappeared under her damp towel.

In response Kagura swiped Aki's towel and pressed her fore finger between Aki's newly exposed eyebrows. The wind user then proceeded to blow-dry Aki's hair.

"Neat trick," Aki grinned up at the woman after brushing off the annoying finger tapping her forehead. "How are you at drying clothes?"

"It doesn't work as well, I'm afraid," Kagura answered.

"That's too bad, I really would have liked to wear my jeans again," Aki shrugged.

"And I'm sure you wouldn't have minded being able to wear your flannel shirt," Fred grinned.

"The thought hadn't crossed my mind," Aki lied with a grin. Sesshoumaru ran his claws through her hair for the tactile comfort it brought him. It was practically the only thing he could have done that wouldn't cause her pain at the moment.

"Right," Fed chuckled. "And I finally managed to teach a poodle to fly."

"What's a poodle?" Shippou asked in confusion.

"It's a special breed of dog that people have domesticated as pets," Aki answered.

"There are dogs that can fly?" the kit marveled.

"Nope, which is why he said it," Aki laughed.

"Because they are both liars!" Jaken exclaimed more than willing to tarnish the reputation of a woman he was still of the impression meant very little to his lord.

"Actually, what I said previous to Fred's lie was a lie, and we both knew it, which is why he said what he did," Aki explained to a couple of horrified looking little girls.

"Grown-ups sometimes use sarcasm to express themselves," Kagome explained. "They tell lies that are often easily identified to make a point or sometimes a joke. That was Aki's intention which her good friend understood."

"I never lie about anything important," Aki smiled and elbowed Sesshoumaru when he growled at her words. "Small white lies about my health not withstanding."

"She'd rather just imprison you for no reason," Kouga grumbled. "And she'll lie about the weather."

Aki rolled her eyes at the annoying wolf prince. Suddenly the temperature inside the room dropped severely.

"It's freezing!" Kagome shivered in her incredibly insufficient clothing.

"Still believe there's no storm out there?" Aki asked pointedly. "I was keeping the cold out, but since you insisted there was no reason for it, I decided to stop wasting my energy."

"You've made your point now cut it out!" Kouga growled as Kagome and everybody else shivered more violently.

"I did," Aki leaned against Sesshoumaru's chest comfortably. "It'll take a few minutes for the air to warm back up. Now don't annoy me again and we'll be set."

Kouga growled angrily, but Kagome spoke before he could. "Don't say anything Kouga, You'll regret it!" Her glower was no less potent for the children and other humans hovering around her for warmth. The wolf prince swallowed nervously as her look was taken up by the fire cat, fox kit and two adult humans.

Inuyasha snickered, greatly enjoying the wimpy wolf's misfortune right up until Kagome sat him with a strong order to shut up.

"Do youkai just not understand the concept of time out and tact?" Aki asked Sesshoumaru loudly.

"You do realize asking a youkai that question within earshot of other youkai is completely tactless, right?" Miroku smirked.

"Well, I've been called unreasonable, and a liar more than once in the last twenty minutes, I thought I'd give everybody a new word to throw around," Aki shrugged.

Suddenly she tensed, every nerve ending dancing to attention as she stared at the door to the world outside their little room of warmth. Aki pulled herself out of Sesshoumaru's lap and staggered through the tide of wolves that ardently paid her their collective attention. When she reached the door, she pressed her hand to it. "Fred," she whispered, the sound loud in the intense silence her strange movements had created. All attention was focused on her hand.

"Don't even think it Aki," it was clear the ghost knew what she was thinking.

"But she'll die," Aki protested, anyone with half a brain and eyes in their head could see that it upset her a great deal more than it should.

"You don't know who that is or why they ventured into the storm. Don't do anything stupid," the ghost tried to talk her out of it.

"Yumi, go get a long piece of rope," Aki told the little girl. The young mole youkai scrambled into the storage cupboards under the floor by the wall for the requested item. One end of the rope retrieved was tied around Aki's waist as Sesshoumaru stalked across the room to stop her. Aki shoved the other end of the rope into his hand before he could start. "Hold this. Kagome, time me fifteen minutes. If I'm not back on my own by then, pull me back to safety," she slid the door open to reveal a white void that was the storm. "Be prepared for hypothermia, have blankets and dry clothing ready, start fixing something warm to drink or eat. And Kagura, be ready to fix a lot of hair with that trick of yours."

"You should not be doing anything physically straining," Kikyou scolded her sternly.

"No one else will be able to find her quickly enough to do her any good," Aki shrugged her off.

"You should not be doing anything physically straining," Kikyou glared at her. "If this foolish person is incapable of walking back here, leave them."

Aki sent her a look over her shoulder as she stepped through the barrier and into the white. After she took two steps from the door here was nothing for them to see. The storm eliminated visibility beyond that point so all they could see was the rope disappearing into the snow.

"Apparently," Aki could sense where she was going well enough because the rope flew out the door at a quick pace that made Sesshoumaru wrap the end of it more firmly around his hand. He would not allow her lifeline to slip away from him.

The rope stopped threading through the door long before it could be drawn taught from Sesshoumaru's hand.

"I guess she's found them," Kagura said.

"Has it been time yet, Kagome?" Inuyasha wanted to know. It was very unlikely that he would ever learn the true virtue of patience.

Kagome rolled her eyes and continued to fold every available blanket and place it within easy reach of the door. "I'll let you know when it's time to start reeling her in. Until then you could help me get this place ready. Aki is going to be really cold when she gets back, but it will be worse for whomever she went to get."

"Keh! Just toss them into the hot spring. That ought to warm them up!" Inuyasha scoffed.

Miroku allowed his staff to fall on Inuyasha's head. "If we wanted to risk killing them, we certainly could do that," the monk spoke peaceably, as if he hadn't just given the hanyou a bump on the head.

"We have to be careful not to warm them up too fast," Kagome grunted as Kikyou pushed her aside to reach the fire they'd been using to cook with. The dead woman was too intent on preparing some tea to bother giving her reincarnation the time of day.

"It would be better if Aki had more dry clothing," Sango murmured.

"Here!" Yumi plopped a great bundle of silky cloth down on top of the blankets Kagome had set out. "And we have more blankets too."

"Yumi, those belonged to your mother," the older mole youkai declared darkly.

"And they will still belong to her if somebody else wears them," Sango smiled at the little girl.

"Mama would want us to use them to help others," Yumi nodded.

"Not predators and enemies," her father retorted.

"We aren't your enemies!" Kagome yelled in exasperation. "What have we done to make you think so?"

"We did not attack you, mistreat you or imprison you," Miroku said calmly. "We have kept you fed, warm, and comfortable. What reason have you for this irrational need to insult and otherwise offend out party?"

"The question didn't require an answer," Fred cut the mole off. "Try to remove the slack, Aki might have trouble finding her way back without a little help."

Sesshoumaru was all for pulling the rope taut, it was one step before reeling Aki in and that couldn't happen soon enough for him. Inuyasha hauled the excess rope further behind them to get it out of the way while Sango attempted to wind it up properly to be stored once again.

Strangely no matter how much rope was coiled up behind the inu brothers, they couldn't get the rope to pull taught at all. "I guess she's already on her way back," Fred murmured absently "Hey get away from the door!" he ordered urgently.

"What for?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Because you're in the way, stupid," Fred hollered. "How is she supposed to come in when she gets here if everybody is blocking the door? Did you ever think of that?"

"Don't forget the rope!" Kagome exclaimed.

Inuyasha cursed as he realized the mess of it getting in Sesshoumaru's way since the hanyou had paused to argue. It was getting harder to handle as the snow soaked into the fibers and the chill of it made the rope painful to grasp. Which could only indicate how very cold it was outside. "I hope you beat her when she gets back, "Inuyasha grumbled. He didn't like worrying about Aki, something he found himself doing all too often. He was extremely glad he wasn't in Sesshoumaru's shoes. If his worry was so horrible from just a brotherly stand point, he couldn't imagine how rotten it must be for someone more involved.

Sesshoumaru ignored the comment; he knew pain would teach Aki nothing except that he was violent. Besides, Aki couldn't really handle much more rough handling without good reason. All he could really do was hope she came back safe and sound. Then, oh, then he was most assuredly going to drag her forcibly (if he had to) into the room where they slept so he could become more intimately familiar with her bruises. Very likely, he wasn't going to give her a reason to leave that room for as long as possible.

But first, Aki had to return to the shelter heated by the fire.

"Has it been fifteen minutes yet, Kagome?" Azusa asked, getting bored with watching the rope turn into a damp coil by Sango.

"Eh?" Kagome gasped and dropped everything to glance at her forgotten watch. Her voice was shrill with guilt for forgetting to watch Ai's time and worry for the time her watch indicated. "She's been gone for over twenty minutes."

Sesshoumaru immediately picked up the pace, the rope flew past him faster than Sango could work it so the length of it bunched and twisted and flopped all over the place as it pleased. The taiyoukai didn't care; somewhere on the end of the rope was Aki, exposed to the fury of the wind and snow.

Two minutes later, Aki stumbled through the barrier over the door, tripped over the last of the rope and fell to the floor, dropping the demon she rescued in the sea of snow-white wolves. Both Aki and the youkai were covered in snow from head to tow, leaving them both looking as white as the void from which they had escaped.

Aki pushed herself up from the floor to sit and suck the warm air into her poor frozen lungs. Her skin was pale with cold as the snow began to melt and allieve her of its whiteness.

Sesshoumaru pushed through the shivering and frosted wolves to cradle Aki's head in his hands. He kneeled down to rub her cold cheek with his warm one.

"She's not breathing!" Kagome cried from where she was trying to help the other female.

Sesshoumaru felt the puff of Aki's breath across his face as she sighed tiredly before moving clumsily over to where Kagome was. The partial youkai pressed her ear over the unnamed youkai's heart. A second later she shook her head and motioned Kagome away from the female.

Aki placed one pale hand over the stranger's heart. She placed her other hand under the stranger's arm and closed her eyes.

Aki shoved energy through the youkai's heart in one swift pulse causing it to jump-start. The youkai's eyes snapped open and swung out with both claws instinctively. The stranger managed to scour Aki's cheek and nick Kagome's forearm before Aki straddled her and pinned her down.

"Sorry Kagome, my bad," Aki murmured quietly as the strange youkai continued to struggle. "I should have realized she would react like a cornered animal."

"Ayame! What are you doing here!" Kouga demanded gruffly, his voice breaking through the wolf youkai's senseless fright.

"Should've known she was a friend of yours," Aki snorted as Ayame began to settle down.

"Are you okay Ayame?" Kagome asked, now recognizing the youkai's slowly thawing red hair under the disappearing frost.

Ayame blinked up at the novice miko cradling her arm as Kouga came up behind her. "What are you doing here?" the pinned youkai asked quietly.

"We were looking for Naraku and found Aki instead," Kagome motioned to the partial youkai still sitting astride Ayame. "Kouga was probably following Kagura for the same purpose," the time traveler nodded at he red-eyed woman standing against the wall. "We got stuck here because Aki wouldn't let any of us out into the storm."

"I was following Kouga," Ayame explained softly. "Grandfather wants to speak to him about a pack problem "

"You are lucky you were close enough for Aki to sense you," Kikyou declared sternly. Foolishness that caused near death injury deserved nothing but her wrath. She was keeping it to herself though, barely. "If not for Aki your mission would have ended in failure due to your death."

"Lay off Kikyou," Aki growled tiredly as the miko forced the partial youkai's chin to the side in order to examine the scratch on her face. "Is it still bleeding?" the former tutor asked mildly, at this point she really didn't care.

"It is slowing," Kikyou nodded.

"Sango could you hand me my first aid kit? There should be bandages in it for this sort of thing," Kagome shrugged as she looked over her own scratch. Inuyasha grabbed her arm so he could examine it instead.

"What happened to you?" Ayame asked in confusion as Sango handed over the metal box of supplies.

"Keh! You scratched them when they tried to help you," Inuyasha growled, lifting Kagome arm to an awkward level.

"Hey! That's attached you know!" Kagome protested.

"Quit your whining!" Inuyasha growled in return.

Aki chuckled, "don't worry about it," she said to Ayame. "You awoke unexpectedly in a foreign place surrounded by people you didn't recognize. It was natural to react that way. Besides you didn't really hurt us." Sesshoumaru growled at that, but Aki ignored him while Kikyou bandaged her cheek.

"See if you can refrain from collecting any more injuries for a while," the dead miko grumbled.

"Don't bet on it," Inuyasha grumbled as he glared at Kagome over her injury.

"Don't look at me like that!" Kagome huffed. "This wasn't my fault, you fat head!"

"Can we get everybody dry and warm before we start throwing around blame?" Aki growled. "Let's start with the wolves. Kagura can you get their fur dry?"

"Keep that witch away from the wolves!" Kouga snarled.

Aki gave him a flat look, "If you think you can keep them all from attempting to shake off the water and showering everybody else until their fur is dry, I'll be happy to ask Kagura to only worry about Ayame and me. Otherwise it's more efficient to dry the wolves first."

"If she does anything more than dry them…"Kouga growled and left the threat open.

"You'll shave me bald and grease me down with butter," Aki suggested without the smallest hint of being serious.

"No Aki, that's what I would do," Fred laughed.

"Seriously, the first time you used that threat my little brothers attacked you with a stick of butter and a frying pan," Aki laughed. "Just dry the wolves, Kagura. Then Ayame and I would like a style and curl."

Kagome laughed, "Kagura the hair stylist! She would be so awesome at it!"

"Mark my words Windy, you'll be a rich artist some day," Aki grinned.

Kagura simply scoffed at her as she moved to blow dry two wolves at once.

Everybody else stared at the three people from the future like they were crazy. Like anybody who could quick dry hair would ever be considered an artist! The world didn't work that way.

But Kagome, Aki, and Fred knew different. The world was a crazy place and always changing, after all.


	8. Unwrapped

Ugh wal-mart nearing its inventory date. Somebody Shoot me!

Now I'm no speedy Gonazles, but I'm no conservative Connie either. There are few things in this world that will make be drive below the speed limit on the highway. Hell there are few that'll make me _drive_ the speed limit on the highway, but they do exist.

Lets see if you can guess which they are...

Will I drive less than the speedlimit for:

a) snow  
b) ice  
c)because I already landed in the Median and my nerves are shot and I'd like very much to stay on the road rather than having to wait another hour and a half for the tow truck to pull me out.  
d) because I landed in the ditch on my way out of my driveway on my way to work the day after I landed in the median.  
or e)all of the above.

If you guessed e), dear lord are you friggin' psychic? And yes, I really did land in the Median on the highway 3 miles from my exit. And I didn't do any of the classic things people do wrong when roads are slick. I didn't touch the brake to slow down. I was just getting over (SLOWLY!) 4 miles before my exit. I steered into the skid, like you're supposed, but there was nothing for it. I wound up 180ing it into the grassy median. ANd I slid in sideways so I couldn't drive myself out of it.

On the (hmm, ego-saving side) I wasn't the only one to go off the road at the time. One guy coming from the _opposite direction_ wound up even farther into the median than I did and a couple cars behind me ended up off the road too. (that lucky bastard managed to pull back onto the road and continue on his way.) So I sat there and not 20 minutes after I got stuck, the salt truck went by. I wanted to hit somebody! 20 minutes! Rotten bloody scoundrels!

And then the morning after, my dad had moved my car so i had to do this awkward manuever to back out. (and a fresh layer of ice covered by snow that left me with no real indication of where our paved driveway acutally was) I manage to back my rear end into the road and turn my front wheel right into the friggin' ditch! totally ruining my attempt to leave for work early or even on time! I had to wake my poor dad up so he could pull me out with the truck.

so yeah, remember how I hate snow? Well add driving, Michigan, and Winter to the list RIGHT now!

On a totally different note, Chapter 3 of part 6 is done, now part 4 is giving me trouble. DAME YOU, DAME YOU ALL TO HEEL you fickle inspiration! Part of it is probably because I've been so wound up from my traffic adventures, I just can't get my mind to slow down and focus on just this spot in the story. It's annoying. Hopefully another night of sleep and NO friggin' snow induced crash tests in my future will help calm me down.

Wonder if Rumiko Takahashi had this problem... then again, the Inuyasha characters _are_ hers, her life must be one long trek through World WAr 3 everyday. AFter all, there's no way all those obnoxious demons and crazy humans can behave for more than 2 seconds!

**Unwrapped**

There _are_ benefits to being half frozen and near the point where hypothermia becomes a real threat, strange as it may sound. After all, numbness against physical pain is a rare and fleeting rhapsody that seldom occurs for people, youkai specifically, whose metabolism runs through drugs and alcohol quicker than the effects can be felt.

On the other hand, periods of prolonged numbness can hide the warning signs of muscle strain. A side effect, Sesshoumaru was coming to realize, Aki was exploiting in full.

The inu youkai mentally sighed as he watch her laugh, without a single wince of pain as her ribs were jarred by it. If she wasn't careful, she could possibly cause further damage. That is, if she hadn't already when Aki moved so fast to pin this Ayame annoyance to the floor.

Sesshoumaru could feel his concern pulling down at the corners of his mouth. Aki was forever neglecting her personal well being. This hair-brained rescue mission into the middle of a blizzard was only the latest example.

Not that he didn't understand why Aki had felt compelled to save the wolf. Sesshoumaru was coming to understand her a little. That still didn't mean he would encourage her to continue such crazy behavior.

Which is why he had already sent Rin into the room he'd claimed as his own with a few blankets and one of the extra kimonos. Aki needed to be warmed up before she had the chance to further hurt herself. Inuyasha's female could look after the ookami, _he_ would look after Aki.

Sesshoumaru gracefully prowled through the milling four legged animals in varying states of thaw and dryness towards his future mate. Rin had already returned from her chore and smiled as she watched him. The other children turned to watch him as well and the taiyoukai had to stifle an annoyed snarl. Aki had turned him into paltry entertainment for the youngest members of their company.

The sooner he escaped the presence of everybody else with Aki the happier he would be.

Sesshoumaru silently helped Aki to her feet from where she had pinned Ayame to the floor. It was quite clear that the youkai no longer intended to harm them.

"Who would actually pay to have someone dry their hair?" Inuyasha demanded incredulously.

"You'd be surprised," Aki replied with a grin. "There are people who pay good money to have even their _dog's_ hair cut, colored and dried."

"Not possible," Inuyasha scoffed.

Kagome grinned and nodded in support of Aki, "It's the truth. They even buy clothes for their pets. Sometimes you can't help but pity the poor things."

"The pets or the owners?" Miroku asked.

"Yes," Aki cut off Kagome's response. A person either pitied the one or the other and sometimes both, so her single syllable answer about covered it.

"Well, I think it's insane," Inuyasha harrumphed.

"Whoever said the people of the world were sane?" Fred asked with a chuckle.

"With you for an example it is easy to believe all humans are crazy," Kagura poked fun at the ghost.

"Hey, I resent that!" Kagome yelled. "And so do Sango and Miroku."

"A monk that steals, gropes women and lies and a woman that fights people that are twice as strong as she is, whose best friend is a youkai cat? Oh yes, that evidence for the sanity of humans is just piling up," Kagura teased blandly.

"Well, compared to a youkai that tried to overcome the fury of mother nature, a wolf that can't take no for an answer, a hanyou that hasn't learned how to avoid being sat, a wind demoness that repeatedly defies the evil bastard that holds her life and a toady that can't keep his mouth shut. The humans aren't doing so bad in the equation," Fred shrugged.

"I notice you didn't mention Aki or Sesshoumaru," Miroku commented.

"Well, I didn't want the humans to win by a landslide," the ghost grinned mischievously.

Aki snorted, "He didn't include me because then he'd have to include himself and Kikyou on the human side and you guys would lose…badly."

"Not if we count Aki on our side," Kagome declared. "She was human after all, it should count for something!"

"Kagome, my sanity isn't –" Sesshoumaru cut off her words with a hand over her mouth. The joking and laughter stilled in the moments following his action.

Sesshoumaru addressed the room, though he did not look away from Aki's eyes. "You will take care of the wolf," his order was soft, but it was clear he expected them to look after Ayame properly.

Aki had risked her life to save the ookami and he would be most displeased if it proved to be a fruitless effort because of their neglect. By the same token, if their attention was focused on the wolf, it wouldn't be on Aki. Thereby insuring Sesshoumaru and Aki's privacy while he looked after her.

"Of course we'll take care of Ayame," Kagome huffed indignantly.

"Aki's risk will not be taken lightly," Miroku assured the inu youkai.

Sesshoumaru barely nodded as he guided Aki in the direction of his choosing. His firm grip on her arm kept her from falling the two times her benumbed feet stumbled over the furred body of wolves that besieged her. He felt like snarling at the four-legged nuisances, but he didn't. He realized that the room was too crowded for a clear path through it.

"I'll bring a bowl to you when it's ready," Kikyou called after them.

"Hey, make it something worth eating this time," Aki teased back as Sesshoumaru pushed her from the room and shut the door.

"You're not going after them, Fred," Kagome asked as she helped Ayame to her feet.

"Nah, he'll take good care of her," Fred shrugged. "Besides, they probably need to change her clothes. I do try to give her privacy, no matter how much of a perv I may be."

"That's very good of you," Kagura mumbled.

"Not really," Fred grinned mischievously. "I try to behave so that when we argue for her to do something like eat or rest properly she can't use it against me."

"What does one have to do with the other?" Kouga demanded, confused as to how an argument would include voyeurism in anyway.

"Anything is game when you argue with Aki," Fred answered evenly. "And any woman who ever lived has a longer memory than you. They'll drag things to light from years back just to make a point and smack you up side the head with the surprise of it."

"Girls don't fight fair," Youta declared with emphasis.

Yumi whipped out and hit her brother on the back of the head.

"Girls fight to win, that's all," Azusa sniffed.

"It's rather pointless not to," Sango nodded at the younger girl.

"Nah, Aki just does it to annoy the crap out of people," Inuyasha grumbled.

"You'd better shut up," Kagome growled.

"Yeah, you tell that dog turd to stop polluting the air with his stupidity!" Kouga was behind Kagome a full one hundred percent. "We wouldn't want it to rub off on the wolves."

"Then they should stop spending so much time with you!" Inuyasha growled back.

"Ha! You wish you were as smart as me!" Kouga roared back as he leapt to his feet.

"If you had one tenth the brains I have in my little finger –" Inuyasha began.

"You would both still be dumber than a box of rocks," Sesshoumaru growled heatedly from the door he had previously shut. "But that still gives you no reason for such ridiculous volume."

"Oh look," Kouga mocked the taiyoukai even as his pack brothers begged him not to. "Another brainless dog."

Kikyou reached out with her bow and smacked the wolf over the head. The blow was so powerful as to knock the youkai flat on his stunned face. "Please convey my apology to Aki for violating her no violence edict. I believed it was better for me to react than you," the dead miko explained to the insulted youkai lord.

Sesshoumaru nodded minutely in response, though it irked him to be defended and protected by the dead woman. He was realistic and it was clear that he most likely would have reacted in a violent manner to the wolf's disrespect. A reaction that would only serve to make Aki angry _with_ him.

He intended to personally care for her injuries, an endeavor that would be somewhat impossible if she should be angry with him. Besides, an upset Aki would never sit still, which would be bad for her.

With a silent sigh, Sesshoumaru snapped the door closed and turned to look at the subject of his thoughts. Aki sat on the floor of the far side of the room, watching him. Normally this would not be cause for concern, but her clothing was wet and cold, her poor muscles very much needed her to lay down to rest.

The inu youkai padded over to the soggy female and sank to the floor.

"So Kikyou had enough of the arguing boys," Aki sighed with a smile. She had overheard the whole interchange with ease. "Poor Sesshoumaru couldn't clobber Kouga properly on your own." She chuckled softly. "Good Sesshoumaru, bad Kikyou!"

Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow at her playful speech but didn't comment on it. Aki in such a light mood most likely indicated a lingering numbness that would slowly dissipate whether she desired it to or not. A warming process that would only be accelerated by getting her out of those snow wet clothes.

The inu youkai reached out to tug the zipper down the front of her jacket, his intention just to get started, and the damn thing stuck! He sat tugging at it in surprise a few moments before he let out a commanding growl.

Aki burst out laughing as he continued to fight with the metal teeth. She shook her head and brought her cold hands up to stall his warm ones when they threatened to tear her sweat jacket open. "The metal is probably a little frozen. Try warming it up first," she suggested through her chuckling.

Instead he captured her cold, clumsy hands and pressed his warmth into them. Sesshoumaru whined with concern at how cold she felt to him. He dragged the appendages close to his body the better to warm them.

"Sess?" she hissed in confusion as his body heat scorched her benumbed hands.

Sesshoumaru hauled the rest of her close in answer. The shock of how cold she was nearly sent a shudder of horror through him. It hurt and terrified him on several levels so buried and surprising to him. He hadn't realized just how much he was coming to care about her.

Sure he'd known she was important to him and if anything happened to her he would be hurt by it. He just hadn't realized how close to broken losing her would render him and that caused fear to clench the muscles of his heart. To rely on the well-being of someone else for his continued psychological health was a completely foreign experience in Sesshoumaru's life. He'd taught himself to keep from just this type of situation because it was so easily exploitable.

He had done more than step out of his comfort zone with Aki, his comfort zone was completely gone, and there was no way back. But, Sesshoumaru pondered as he squeezed Aki a little tighter, this was not a bad thing. Fear is what keeps us alive, as Aki had told him once, and bravery keeps us going. Besides, if Aki was his weakness, he didn't need to worry about his enemies too much. As Fred had said so long ago, only Aki is ever likely to take Aki down.

Unfortunately, that was another source of fear. Aki was terribly reckless with her own health. It was also a source of some hurt, because Aki had always taken care of herself before the curse. She hadn't wanted to cause her family to worry. She hadn't wished to distress her loved ones then, which indicated that there was no serious feeling in her for him right now.

He swallowed discretely and mentally shook his head, Aki had basically promised herself to him, and her heart could not be far behind. He had only to wait in order to receive what he wished for.

Oh and make sure she lives long enough for her affections to grow. Sesshoumaru forced himself to push Aki slightly away from him so he could once again attempt to disengage the jacket's zipper.

The metal teeth easily separated this time, allowing him to tug the soggy cloth from her chilled shoulders, which were beginning to shiver. Sesshoumaru peeled the sleeves from her arms to leave her bare where the bandages weren't rapped around her torso and breasts. Her soggy leggings could be ignored for the moment so he could inspect the damage immediately.

Sesshoumaru pressed her shoulders back until her back lay cushioned on one of the folded blankets ad her head was cradled by another. His claws moved their attention to the fabric wound about her to help her poor ribs. The wrapping was damp as well, and her rescue mission had loosened it a bit, making it easy to unwind it from the bottom towards the top.

Though he was reticent, he allowed Aki to help a little, making the cloth easier to slip out from under her. He stopped before he could reveal too much of her chest. He was fairly sure she had suffered no real injury there.

Color rainbowed across the skin of her mid section in different hues of greenish-brown, violent purple and angry reds where the flesh had been abused past the point of more "tame" colors. Each merely hinted at the damage beneath the surface. Sesshoumaru nearly whined at the sight, the colors being more widespread and dark than they had been before.

Aki propped herself up with her arms to take a look herself. It wasn't the greatest move on her part, as moving like that forced the muscles of her torso to move in ways that were already suffering from the effort of breathing.

Sesshoumaru growled and pulled her arms out to where they could no longer support her in such an awkward pose, causing her to fall back onto the blankets. He pressed a kiss to her forehead firm enough to reinforce the idea that she shouldn't strain herself out of curiosity or any other needless impulse.

She growled in protest, clearly letting him know there was no way she was going to behave without being forced to. Sesshoumaru kissed her again and pulled her arms out a little more to insure Aki couldn't gain any leverage again, which left him with no hands to tenderly inspect her bruises with.

Sesshoumaru was not a youkai to be easily swayed from his goals. Any impediment in the path toward his desired destination was quickly assessed and attacked, manipulated or removed through one action or another. So it was in this instance, while his hands were busy keeping Aki from straining herself further, he had other means of assessing the female's injuries.

The inu youkai rather liked the solution he came up with, he almost smiled with his pleasure, after all, he would get a lot closer if he couldn't use his hands.

"What are you doing?" Aki demanded as Sesshoumaru smirked at her before placing a kiss where his mark used to be and would be again someday.

Sesshoumaru hovered over her rib cage out of her comfortable line of sight. He could smell her so well from such close range. Aki's muscles shifted nervously, causing him to growl soothingly as he began to lick his way across her skin.

He pressed hard enough to test the bone under the surface and left the area slick when he moved on. That was another thing he rather liked about this solution, his saliva would leave his scent on her skin. Granted, the scent wouldn't stay as one of Aki's inherent abilities would cleanse it from her person rather quickly, but even this small amount of time was a comfort. And it _was_ possible that his saliva contained other healing properties besides the coagulant she wouldn't have let him use. Though he really did want to apply it to the scratch on her cheek.

It was rather pleasant just to gain a more intimate acquaintance with Aki's physique without the possibility of sex. Not that he didn't want to mate with Aki, but just being able to show her she could be around him and just be comfortable without wondering if he had ulterior motives was a good thing.

Or at least, that's what he told himself, having no way of sensing if Aki was affected by the contact the way he was. Her scent was too subtle for him to be able to distinguish the minor changes strong emotion might make in it. He had no way of knowing, until Aki gave a treacherous moan that nearly ruined the hold he had on his self-restraint.

He was saved from misbehaving (though he wasn't exactly thrilled about it) by a sharp knock at the door and the slow appearance of the wind youkai beyond.

Kagura blinked mildly at Sesshoumaru, who had moved to block Aki from view. She came bearing more blankets, a bowl of food, and other useful items. "Oh please," Kagura twitched the corner of her mouth in amusement, "don't stop misbehaving on my account."

Aki groaned from behind the inu youkai blocking her from sight. Aki really hated being unable to see whom she was talking to and she certainly planned to talk to the wind user. It wasn't in her to completely ignore the presence of another for no reason.

The first move she made to sit up behind Sesshoumaru sent her breath out of her in a hiss of pain. The growl of her living screen made let her know what he thought of both the attempt and even the idea of her moving. "Oh shut up!" Aki huffed uneasily; the effort beyond breathing was rather painful at this point.

"All right stop misbehaving!" Kagura growled. "Aki sit still!"

"Like I'm going to take orders from somebody I can't see," Aki mumbled with an unseen roll of her eyes.

"Aki, do not move unnecessarily," Sesshoumaru ordered with a growl and a glare over his shoulder.

"Like I'm going to follow the orders of somebody I _can_ see," Aki glared right back at him. "And don't try the 'but you're in pain' card, it won't work."

Sesshoumaru growled angrily. Her insinuation that he would try such an utterly useless persuasion on the woman that didn't rest unless the weather, weakness, and narcotics were used against her in a single offensive maneuver was incredibly insulting of his intelligence. Surely Aki didn't think he was that dumb.

Aki shook her head. "There you go again, taking everything personally." She sighed tiredly. Then she reached up and closed her hand over his shoulder and pulled herself up form the floor so she could look over him to Kagura. "Now," the former tutor leaned heavily against he taiyoukai, "You came in here for a reason right?"

"Aki lay back down already," Kagura grumbled pleadingly. Aki stared up at her, blankly waiting for the answer to her simple question. "Really Aki it's not so important you need to sit up for it," the wind user muttered. It was Sesshoumaru's turn to stare up at the detachment speakingly. She had to realize that now Aki was sitting up, it would cause her more pain to lay back down without help.

"Speak and be done with it," Sesshoumaru demanded coolly. He wanted the interruption gone and over with already. Aki was still wearing damp clothing and in pain.

Kagura seemed to realize her inability to drop the last subject and move on was beginning to piss off the one youkai nobody wanted to anger. "I brought extra blankets, dinner and some tea. I couldn't remember if I had dried your hair before you left the room or not," Kagura explained. "All that fur and hair can get confusing."

Aki smiled up at her, "the mass of hair that is all mine is still a soggy mess, thanks for remembering. Or rather, not remembering as it were," she started to chuckle before immediately cutting herself off. "If that food is the same garbage Kikyou gave me earlier, you can take it back. I'd rather sleep."

"I don't think that's the idea," the wind user chuckled mildly with a shake of her head. "It's supposed to help warm you up as much as fill your stomach. Hence the tea."

Aki made a disgusted face, "I'd rather chew on tree bark."

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was in the tea," Kagura glanced at the tea consideringly.

"Even if it isn't, I don't like tea," Aki dismissed the beverage even as she shivered with cold.

"But you're cold," Kagura blinked.

"And the sun is not," Aki snorted, "Drop it."

"But it would make a mess," Kagura pointedly set the food and tea aside gently.

"Everybody's a comedian," Aki grumbled with a half smile.

"I blame you for it," Sesshoumaru gently dipped his shoulder an inch.

"And I'll take it as a compliment," Aki smiled and nudged her chin against the shoulder supporting her. "Can we get my hair dried now? It's dripping all over the blankets."

"Sure thing," Kagura stood up and moved toward Aki with the intent of doing just that when she realized the partial youkai was still wearing soggy pants. "Why aren't you finished changing clothes yet?" she demanded before thinking better of it. "How are you supposed to get warm in wet clothes?"

"We were misbehaving of course, don't you remember?" was Aki's _not_ answer.

Kagura heaved a great, belabored sight. "Stand up so we can get you dressed and dried properly. Really, are you trying to get sick? And after I told you about Kanna's complaints. You just have no consideration!"

Aki blinked as her smile grew outrageously wide. She had no consideration? She just saved a complete stranger's life! Kagura was hilarious. "Oh please don't make me laugh," she begged as her eyes grew shiny.

"I'm not making you laugh, I'm making you stand up!" Kagura declared evenly.

"Help me up, you slave driver," Aki teased the wind user. She pushed herself off the floor using Sesshoumaru as a support. The inu youkai growled in protest when he heard her hiss in pain as the effort made her use the muscles she had already overused.

"Watch the name calling," Kagura mock scolded her as she helped to steady the other woman on her feet. She held the spare kimono out as Aki let the last of the wrapping fall way. "Geez, Aki," Kagura breathed upon glimpsing Aki's colorful torso even as she wrapped the second hand silk garment around her tightly.

Mole youkai weren't anywhere near as tall as Aki and were never likely to grow to her height. So it was no surprise when the kimono of a recently deceased female mole youkai stopped just before reaching Aki's knees.

"I feel like a kid after a really big growth spurt," Aki grumbled.

Kagura laughed and quickly dried Aki's hair. "At least its dry, which those pants are not. OFF with them," she ordered briskly.

Aki began to mutter under her breath in English as she attempted to struggle out of the clinging, wet material. Sesshoumaru reached up to help her out of them and she batted him away. "I happen to like keeping these in one piece," she snorted over his growl. The inu youkai pressed forward despite her objection and tugged her out of the cold cloth and down into his lap so fast she didn't have time to blink.

Kagura chuckled quietly before reminding the taiyoukai of the food cooling on the floor with a small, subtle gesture of her fan. Then she retreated from the room, Aki's wet clothing in one hand and her insuppressible smile hidden by the other. Life around Aki truly was Entertaining.

She wondered if Sesshoumaru would manage to get Aki to eat. Kagura hoped so, but she didn't want to try imagining the ways the inu youkai would go about the task.


	9. Insidious Hope

All things considered, the future is looking pretty good despite inventory being less than a month away. WE got a new Manager over our part of the store and so far she looks like she's more than willingly to look to us for direction. Part of the problem we had with the last manager is that she thought she KNEW what we should be doing better than the people who actually ran the individual departments. Apparently what she KNEW was how to run Apparel into the ground and how to alienate people. Our new manager who started yesterday was up front about asking US what needed to be done and how we could do it in order to get ready for inventory while cleaning up the back room. Maybe we'll manage to sell down some of that clearance that's been building up for longer than I've worked there.

One of the other things making the future look bright are College applications! Or rather they would be if I could find more than two schools I'm willing to sit through the application for. I'm now picking my colleges based on whether the program is worth the hassle of filling out the form. Which means I'm down to two grad schools. CAn anybody out there tell me about a really good chemistry program for a Masters degree? BEcause I didn't really like a lot of the ones I found doing a general search and, as I tell my friends, I'm the next best thing to computer illiterate. Meaning there are probably better ways to search.

This is your chance people, find me a good school, not overly large in a place warm and temperate and I'll be living in your area come the fall! Heheh, maybe. I've got my eye on one program, but it's never a good Idea to put all your eggs in one basket as they say. Ideally I would like to wind up west and south of where I'm at.

One thing that's sort of holding me back is the pace at which these new chapters are allowing me to write them...which means there might just be another break coming up around Valentines day. What with the inventory at work, new dpt. manager being trained, and the fickleness of my inspiration to write and grasp the characters I'm trying to use. Part 6 is going to be a bit different, but totally in keeping with the style of this fic. It's just that part 6 is the big integral part and I want to build it up over several chapters without giving too much away. Because of this, while Aki is in nearly every chapter and the chapters are based on observations of Aki's behavior, it's all through the impressions of others. And a lot of the characters I'm using I've seldomed ever focused on before.

A friend of mine, who's read almost everything I have written thus far seems to think it's still good (actually she was demanding more because nearly every chapter seems to build on the suspense instead of ending it.) I love to taunt her with new chapters I'm not sending just yet. I'm so bad!

In any case, I'm facing difficulties in my writing that all authors face at one time or another, I'm sure Rumiko Takahashi did as the characters giving me the most trouble are some of hers, rotten little bastards! ahem, I am better now.

Speaking of building suspense, I do leave things a bit at odds at the end of this chapter too. How terrible of me...Okay now I'm done cracking myself up!

**Insidious Hope**

Supposing the old adage to be correct in saying that every cloud has a silver lining, then all of Aki's bad experiences had to have had some good because of, in concurrence with or directly following each of them. Sadly, as is most often the case, the good does not outweigh the bad or even come close to equaling it because the surface area of some inner level of an object cannot easily be more than the surface area of the outside of the same object ad as the lining of something is usually the interior, this will hardly ever prove false.

So the good things Aki had been gifted with by the natural, unnatural course of her strange life were small rare experiences, things that were treasured not because of the personal joy brought to her but the perceived honor bestowed upon her by the rarity and beauty of it all.

Case in point, one of the most precious and rare treats for Aki was the gift of waking up to a sleeping Sesshoumaru. She knew without being told that very few others had been so privileged as to see his unguarded sleeping face and despite his propensity to sleep either on top of her in someway or clinging to her person rather tightly, she felt the meaning behind it acutely. He trusted her not to use it against him. He trusted her not to cause him harm, even if he didn't trust her to stay put.

Aki smiled at the sleeping youkai next to her who had yet again managed to cuddle her right out of the covers. She hadn't really given him reason to trust that she wouldn't take off.

She couldn't help it. It just seemed such a waste to lie there and not do something. It was a habit she'd developed when her nightmares were still at their worst. Then came the repeated encounters with Naraku's painted detachment and there you go. Staying in one place just seemed wrong.

Aki mentally shook her head and picked up a lock of Sesshoumaru's long silver hair and tickled his cheek with it. She watched as the sensation registered in his expression and displayed yet another small privilege.

The youkai lord had always made a point of dropping his expressionless mask in her presence, most especially if they were alone. He didn't hide what he was thinking, most of the time. A fact made all the more real by his unconscious reactions to her mischievous teasing with his own hair.

She couldn't help but smile when he gave no real indication of waking, realizing in her unique and thoughtful way his acute exhaustion due to his concern over her previous injuries.

It was times like this that she realized how easily she could come to love him despite his being an inconsistent blanket and bed hog.

With a sigh she pushed herself up off the hard floor into a long invigorating stretch, testing for the lingering pain in her unbound ribs. Aki couldn't really detect any pain beyond the loud protesting of her hungry stomach. Her hand rubbed the empty feeling pit in her belly absently as she pondered her slumbering would-be beau.

She supposed it wouldn't kill her to stay put this one time. Aki crouched down to move Sesshoumaru's silver hair clear of his face. He wasn't likely to sleep much longer. Once Aki's scent began to dissipate the inu youkai would search for it and eventually wake himself up.

On the other hand, since she was planning to stay put anyway and it was a bit chilly in the room without the blankets, it wouldn't be too much trouble to just climb in to the abandoned side of the blankets. Maybe it would help Sesshoumaru stay asleep a bit longer in order to catch up on his "beauty sleep."

She had to stifle a snort of laughter as she pictured the tall youkai with a sleeping mask over his face and wrapped in a quilted robe. Better yet, facial cream with cucumbers! Aki's humor grew more difficult to keep muted with each passing moment. She actually had to press a hand to her mouth to keep any sound from escaping and disturbing the youkai she was trying so hard to let sleep.

Just as she was finally getting herself back under control, the inu youkai next to her rolled over in her direction and his hands somehow managed to land in some very interesting places. She almost cracked up with nervous surprise. She would have suspected he'd done it on purpose but he was quite clearly still asleep. If he hadn't been the unconscious flex of his hands would have been a bit more effective, not that it really needed to be more effective in teasing her skin.

Aki readjusted the youkai's treacherous claws and quietly studied his face.

She was slowly remembering why she had made it such habit to disappear from Sesshoumaru's side the minute she woke up. It wasn't because the inu youkai would latch onto her like he had suckers on his arms. And it wasn't even because he had this bad habit of trying to get past whatever clothing she was wearing to touch her skin, though that was exceedingly annoying when she wasn't wearing all that much to begin with. Like now, when she was wearing a hand-me-down kimono that was too small and nothing underneath because Sesshoumaru had weaseled her out of them before she fell asleep, and he was still acting like she was wearing too many clothes. And he was asleep! It didn't bode well for her future after the curse…and that was the problem, she was still cursed.

Lying next to him while he slept tempted her to think about the future and waking up to this everyday, to daydream about being part of a family again, to be accepted and loved and supported like she had been once. And it was hard to make herself stop that train of thoughts when they were so inviting and likely to happen in her future.

But…if she didn't stop thinking like that she would find herself endangering the very family that was waiting for the threat of her curse to be neutralized, because it wasn't gone yet. At least nobody had told her it was yet, but then, no one had ever said they would inform her when the problem was resolved.

What if she was still waiting and holding back for no reason long after she could have moved on with her life?

That was a dangerous thought. Hope, this specific kind of hope, was the most difficult to guard against or control.

It scared her how easily the idea had leaked into her head. She glared at Sesshoumaru as he attempted to move closer yet again. Somehow she was certain it was all his fault. The strong urge to smack him beyond senseless rose up in her and she barely managed to restrain it.

She crossed her arms over her chest, consequently nudging the inu youkai away from her less gently than she could have, the jerk. Here she was being all nice to him and not disappearing before he woke up and he starts making her dream about the stupid future.

But it certainly was a nice future.

Aki sighed tiredly and tried to think of some way to protect against such thinking. The only way to know what effect a cause would have is to test it, so she had to figure out someway to test her curse. It would be difficult to test her particular curse without killing somebody, which was the whole reason she was testing for it in the first place.

Luckily Naraku had a tendency to create doppelgangers and other so-called living creations that were more like detachable kneecaps or antennae. Hakudoushi, for example, was more like a mini clone of Naraku, only without the independent brain and heart. So Aki had a test subject.

Except there was no way she was going to develop feeling of any kind for any thing that thought and acted like Naraku. Besides the terrible implications such a connection would make about her, she couldn't stand to put herself through a repeat of her family and friends. Her couldn't take a repeat.

So that left her to find another way to key into her curse, but how? She pondered the question as she scratched at the bandage covering part of her cheek. The bandage came up after a little more worrying at it to reveal the healing scratch underneath. Aki stared down at the reddened bandage in her hand when the idea struck her. Blood!

The curse had killed off everyone in her bloodline first and then moved to those not related to her by blood. So if she could somehow give her blood to one of Naraku's tinker toy henchmen…

If she thought of the curse as some kind of virus transferred through blood, then all she had to do was somehow get her blood into the subject system without destroying the curse in the process. Obviously feeding it to the victim wouldn't work because Sesshoumaru had already ingested some without any ill affects. She'd have to find some other way to do it.

Of course, trying to give any enemy her blood was bound to be risky. There weren't too many people (real or created as an extension of someone else) that were out to get her who would hold still and let her infect them with her cursed blood. Not that the risk would stop her.

Aki grimaced even as Sesshoumaru dragged her into a tight, unconscious embrace. She was beginning to feel like a toddler's toy whose head was about to pop off from the grip she was caught in. Part of the feeling was due to the inu youkai's confining hold, but most was due to the disgusting thought of her next big altercation with just about anything belonging to Naraku's faction.

Her future was threatening to be incredibly bloody even if she wasn't cursed. Aki wasn't experienced enough to insure only a small amount of blood was drawn from her opponent in a fight, which is why she tried to avoid drawing any blood at all. She was really good at it, but that wouldn't do her any good with her experiment.

She needed to draw the blood of her enemy in order to mix her own in the fresh wound. It was practically the only thing she could think of to do that Sesshoumaru hadn't already been exposed to (thereby proving which methods didn't work).

Sesshoumaru's arms tightened even more making it very difficult to breath regularly. Aki blinked incredulously as she gasped in pain. Why was he squeezing the day lights out of her in his sleep? He'd never done it before, at least not while she was asleep. Or so she assumed having never woken up gasping for breath and in his grasp. Maybe he as a boa constrictor in another life, next he would unhinge his jaw and eat her.

That was it! The hilarity of that last thought coupled with the ridiculousness of the situation caused a sudden loud burst of laughter to erupt from her body, startling the previously sleeping Sesshoumaru, allowing his arms to relax in reflex.

Aki leaped to her feet to escape the coils of Sesshoumaru's arms at the first opportunity, the action made clumsy by the tangled blankets and the taiyoukai's other limbs that had likewise trapped her against him.

The inu youkai blinked at her in befuddlement as she inevitably fell on top of the rumpled blankets in a laughing heap of limbs and muscle. It was the first time he had ever been awoken by laughter; his brain was having a hard time processing the situation.

Sesshoumaru's rather blank expression set her to laughing more gustily, until she was forced to either look the other way or pass out from lack of oxygen. At that point, Sesshoumaru's stupor had worn off proficiently enough to realize it was highly possible her laughter was caused by him in some way. He was beyond believing this was reason to take offense. Besides, he was more elated that she wasn't expressing words of pain peppered through out her mirth. It was a very good sign in his mind, but Aki was good at hiding her pain.

Sesshoumaru seized upon the female and rolled her under him intent on inspecting her ribs properly once again as he flicked the borrowed kimono open.

"I should've known that was the first thing you'd do," Aki smirked up at him as he wasted no time patting down her ribs. Surprisingly she had no cause to conceal her pain, even when he started applying more pressure. She had to laugh at his puzzled expression. "My healing ability is really screwy, so I never question when it does some weird speed healing in one place, but not in others." She rubbed at the exposed scratch on her face. "Sometimes I wonder if it's just a side effect of my grandmother's spell."

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow t her. It was easy to forget about Aki's strange heritage and history, something made all the easier by her ability to get through every situation without the slightest hint of insecurity. She truly had no prior experiences to draw from when it came to youkai confrontations, but she took it all in stride so easily she seemed like a seasoned pro.

Sesshouamru let himself fall on top of her as he forced out all the worry tht had plagued the last few days. He really should stop trying to understand the woman. The female existence was like water, flowing and ever changing and utterly incapable of being grasped in his hand. As soon as he thought he had it, it would slip through his fingers and find another shape to tease him with.

Aki brushed his hair out of the inu youkai's face absently, studying his features as he closed his eyes in a show of contentment.

Sesshoumaru was just starting to consider the merits of exploiting Aki's nearly naked state when a strange rumbling, growling sound emitted from the area around her belly. What the hell?

Aki had to laugh at his confused look, which eventually dissolved into a rather interesting pout. His face was priceless, and she just knew he had been planning to misbehave in some way. "It's been doing that since I woke up," Aki chuckled as her laughter began to die down.

Sesshoumaru's pout turned into a glare, "Then why did you not go eat?" If she was hungry (and he knew how rare that was for her) she should have immediately gotten some food.

"If I had gotten up after you stole all the blankets, you wouldn't have gotten any more sleep," Aki pointed out. "Besides, the moment I step out there Kikyou is going to ply me with more of that tasteless mush from yesterday."

"You didn't think it was that tasteless last night," Sesshouamru practically purred against the sensitive skin of her neck.

Color flooded her face as she huffed, "That's because I was trying not to choke on it as it was shoved in my mouth, I didn't have time to taste it.

She was teasing, he knew, otherwise he never would have managed to get the whole bowl full into her after the first bite, especially when it went cold. And he knew this was true because he never did manage to get any of the tea into her. "You'd best watch it," Sesshoumaru pressed down on her more solidly than before. "We still have the tea left from last night."

"Oh, eww! Are you trying to make me lose my appetite?" she cried playfully. "Actually if I could make it to my bag without tipping off Kikyou, I have some peanut butter and crackers that sound pretty good about now."

"With some hot chocolate?" Sesshoumaru asked as he brushed his thumb over the skin of her cheek.

"Remember that do you?" Aki chuckled. "I'm afraid I'm out of it, and I haven't had the chance to order more."

"You should have something warm to eat," the taiyoukai thought out loud.

"Why? I'm not cold," Aki shifted curiously.

"but you were, and will be again," Sesshouamru answered.

"So will you," Aki pointed out with a laugh.

Sesshoumaru scoffed and playfully licked her cheek.

"Eww! Sesshoumaru!" Aki wiped her face disgustedly and pinched him. "Germs are a bad thing."

"Not this Sesshoumaru's germs," he replied and licked her again, more thoroughly.

She wiped it off again, "Stop that!" She couldn't help but grin at his silly behavior.

The inu youkai growled playfully and pinned her hands down before covering her face in licks and kisses until her laughter filled the room that had remained remarkably private for them.

Aki's stomach made itself known once more with a rumbling growl. Sesshoumaru growled petulantly in return.

"Come on," Aki prodded the weight keeping her down. "I need food. Besides my clothes might be dry by now." She smiled with excitement, "I might even be able to crawl into some underwear." Sesshoumaru stopped all motion towards getting up and resettled himself on top of her at those words. "Oh come on," Aki whined. "You can't have a problem with my underwear now."

He suspected he would always have a problem with Aki wearing clothes period, but he most especially disliked underwear. It wasn't just a desire to see Aki's uncovered skin, though that was a big part of it. Most of her underwear was just so complicated to take off her he tended to resort to destroying the garments, which always got him in trouble. The rest of her clothes he had learned how to remove by watching her, but the workings of, say her bra, still eluded him. So yes, he did have a problem with her underwear, but he didn't say that as he looked at her blankly.

Aki sighed huffily, "Fine, then. I'll just get used to walking around naked. I mean, it's not like there's anything Inuyasha hasn't seen before, though that was back when I was still human. I'm sure Miroku's already imagined it, but Kouga and his wolf brothers probably haven't. Then again, the first time they met me I _was_ soaking wet and you know how clingy clothes get when they're wet…"

Sesshoumaru growled and got up long before Aki got half way through her subtle warning. No other male would see Aki naked if he had his choice, forcing him to admit clothes on Aki were perfectly wonderful. He pulled her on her feet.

"I thought you'd feel that way," Aki grinned impishly. Her grin just grew wider as he firmly closed the kimono and tied it properly in place. "Now where did you hide my underwear?" Aki asked with a chuckled. It was the only reason he had won the argument the night before; he had quite craftily hidden her panties somewhere and prevented her from finding them.

Sesshoumaru growled and prodded her into facing the door, unwilling to expose his hiding place if he didn't have to. A youkai needed every resource he could muster when dealing with a woman as sharp as Aki.

"I can't believe you're still being so secretive about this," Aki muttered. "It's not like you're going to have cause to stash them here again…" she thought about it a moment before continuing. "Unless you hid them on your person, then you might need to keep it secret, but I would eventually figure it out." Sesshoumaru growled as he tossed the piece of intimate clothing her way. "Hah! I'm right!" she laughed as she stepped into the newly returned garment. "They smell like you." The smelled strongly of the taiyoukai, indicating they'd spent quite some time on or near his person giving solid evidence to support her theory of him pocketing her underwear in some form or other.

Sesshoumaru didn't bother to say whether she was wrong or right as he led the way out of the room.

"'Bout time you two joined the land of the living," Fred teased.

"You're one to talk," Aki muttered. "I'd have been up hours ago," she replied with a sniff, "but Sleeping Beauty decided to go all Boa Constrictor on me in his sleep."

"I always knew he was a snake deep down," Fred responded seriously. "Only a reptile would be seriously interested in you for a romantic partner."

"Well, it's better than the single celled organisms you consorted with," Aki returned. "But then, they were probably the only creatures dumb enough to want a romantic connection with you."

"At least I managed to find more than one of them to fill the role," the ghost retorted. "You had to be transported through time to find even one reptile."

Aki sniffed, "Reptiles are a dime a dozen, can I help it if I demand quality in my partners? It was why you were never considered."

"OH, and exactly which quality were you looking for?" Fred scoffed.

"Quality did not indicate a single characteristic, but a multitude of good traits wrapped in one package, which is where you always fell short. You only have one good character trait, all the rest are flaws and psychosis that you pride yourself on."

"Oh, I feel the burn," Fred gasped with a grin. "You're definitely feeling better."

"But of course," Aki shook her head at him.

"You two are weird," Ayame declared from her station close to the fired and surrounded by wolves. "They told me you two were friends, but all you do is insult each other."

Aki blinked at Fred, "Do you feel insulted?"

"By you? Never," the ghost shook his head. "I understand you too well."

"Same here," Aki nodded.

"If that's your version of friendship, I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies," Ayame shook her head as some of the wolves moved to brush against Aki.

"Hmm, I wonder too," Aki looked toward her feet blocked from view by the furry bodies showing her love.

Ayame stared at her like a landed gold fish. How could someone as powerful as Aki not have enemies?

"So what did you come out here for anyway?" Fred asked absently. "I kind of expected our number one youkai here to hold you captive a long as possible just to safeguard his sanity after your last bought crazy behavior.

"Her stomach demanded otherwise," Sesshoumaru declared petulantly.

"I come hunting peanut butter," Aki declared with a serious look on her face.

"A bold and elusive prey," Fred nodded solemnly.

"Don't go over board or Sesshoumaru will get all up in arms to keep me from it before I can prove how harmless it is," Aki growled.

"As harmless as dihydrogen monoxide," Fred nodded.

"He means water!" Aki yelled at the look the two youkai gave her. "Fred, if I could beat you…" she trailed off as she found her lonely bag stashed in a corner.

"And here I thought the saying ran more along the lines of 'Get not between a woman and her chocolate', when it's been peanut butter all along," Fred teased.

"The chocolate on still stands for most people," Aki noted absently as she fished out her small container of peanut butter a package of crackers. "Hey, I forgot these were in here!" Aki smiled as she brought to light a box of raisins. "All I need now is some celery and I could have ants on a log."

"Why on earth did they call it that anyway?" Fred asked in general.

"Why do they call barbeque chicken wings, buffalo wings? Or those things at fast food places chicken fingers?" Aki returned, "It's just a name."

"What the hell are those things?" Ayame demanded pointing at the shriveled black things Aki was munching on. She was almost afraid they really were ants.

"Raisins. They take grapes and dry them out to make 'em," Aki answered. "Where is everybody?"

"The kids are playing in the fresh snow and the two idiots, er," Fred paused at Ayame's glare. "Inuyasha and Kouga are fighting outside with Miroku, Hakkaku and Ginta playing referee. Kikyou went to collect souls," he continued, his disgust coloring the words. "Kagome and Sango sought out the hot spring a while ago. Jaken, Kagura and Mr. Moley are watching the kids."

"I got stuck here," Ayame grumbled in frustration. "Just because I got caught in the storm yesterday."

"Probably for the best," Aki observed the wolf's blustering. "You did almost die."

"I'm fine!" the red head snarled.

Aki finished her crackers and raisins, packing up the rest of the peanut butter before standing up with a stretch and heading for the door only pausing to pull on her jeans as she went.

"Where are you going?" Fred demanded.

"Outside of course," Aki replied.

"You got caught in the storm yesterday too!" Ayame growled.

"Just because I agree with good advice doesn't mean I follow it," Aki smirked. "Besides, trouble's coming and I have to call the unobservant fools back home."


	10. The Game of War

Did you survive the week? Too bad...

Just Kidding! I survived it too, despite the best efforts of my lazy, loafer coworkers. That is to say the old Dpt manager that is my direct supervisor and always leaves her freight for me to do without asking, hasn't won yet. I'm not doing it because she's resetting the purse mods. Granted I am doing the rest... but that's only because I overhauled the whole area single handedly. That's right, I did it, all by myself!

Of course that was a few weeks ago. This last weekend I got asked to zone up the clearance racks that hadn't been zoned in about two years (massive exaggeration I suppose, but that's what the mess felt like.) And because I worked the clearance in a department that wasn't mine, my department was neglected and the associate who's supposed to work in that department didnt' touch it the entire time I was there. Gah! I hate loafers. People who consistently fail to complete the tasks that make up their job description should find employment elsewhere. It's breach of contract! But I work at wal-mart, where the stupid people reign over all... oh well.

Mucho bonus after the start of the fiscal year. buff bonus. healthy bonus. chant it with me...

It' funny that my reviewers have taken to getting bored with my set up chapters. Granted, setup chapters are never particularly awesome, but in the past mine seemed to have been received rather well. I suppose they'll finally be happy with this chapter... STUFF HAPPENS!!! seriuosly.

I guess in the way that some of my chapters are better received than others is also like the anime and mange as some of the episodes are better and more well liked than others. It's just like memory, some things just stand out more than others. Such as the first time Inuyasha turns human. you remember that MORE than the third or forth time miroku gropes Sango. They blend together and become background. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS! heheh.

Oh, on a side note, I'm typing up another fanfic I've got mostly written. If I ever manage to finish it, I'll post it. It's quite different from this and Insecurities Between Us, mainly becuase I'm trying to pull away from the cannon universe as I progress. Though technically this new fic is still within the parameters of Rumiko Takahashi's story, sort of. Fanfiction is sort of my starting point for building confidence. Who knows, maybe someday I'll write something original I can publish and sell. Would be nice, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

**The Game of War**

Adversity is the food of life. Without it, we are never forced to change and therefore we never grow. Being stuck in stasis isn't truly living, which is why we tend to be so unsatisfied with out lives and ourselves when we are stuck in a rut.

Then again, life or death altercations are only good if we survive them, thereby making somebody else the loser and very dead. So it is best to limit the occurrence of such altercations.

Something Aki was very aware of, even if everybody else present had no idea what she was talking about.

"What!" Two voices demanded her to explain.

Aki sighed. "The mole youkai were ordered to catch me for Naraku. Did nobody else realize that he would return to either collect his prize or mete out his punishment? He couldn't come yesterday because of the storm, but the weather is fine today and all of his targets are exposed and vulnerable. He comes."

"Call them in," Fred nodded. "Fine, but be as expedient about it as possible. They went in different directions, send a messenger to each."

"Ayame stays here," Aki stated flatly. "Kagome and Sango too, Sesshoumaru and I are faster."

"And you'd both be able to find them quicker," the ghost nodded. "I'll find Kikyou. She has a piece of your soul so I should be able to find her pretty quickly. If not, she's dead and a miko, she'll be fine."

"I'll go for the kids," Aki answered firmly. "Sesshoumaru can go after the boys. It'll give him an excuse to beat them a little if he gets to break up the fight."

A spark lit in the taiyoukai's eyes at the mere thought of it. Aki was giving him a gift and he got to beat on the disrespectful wolf. He liked this plan, except the part where Aki had to go outside to do it.

Sesshoumaru grabbed Aki's arm before she stepped through the door and handed her his Tenseiga.

Aki blinked at the feel of the sword, before a slow grin crossed her face. "Give me something I can't cut myself with did you?" she teased him before turning serious. "I'm erecting a barrier over the door when we leave. Nothing evil will be able to cross it, no mutated false Naraku or heartless detachment will get through. Once our people enter, they'll not be able to leave until the barrier drops again, got it? No second chances, let's go!"

"Do not run, " Sesshoumaru murmured in her ear. "Naraku has eyes everywhere, do not alert him to your knowledge of his imminent arrival."

"I know," Aki muttered. "Now shut up and go beat up the boys." She rolled her eyes discretely. He did realize that giving her a sword of any kind pretty much gave the game away, right? One does not arm oneself to go pick up the kids from a play date, but it was highly unlikely he would take the weapon back.

Sesshoumaru nodded without a change in his expression. He was pretty sure Aki would be making sarcastic comments about this whole situation once everyone was safe.

The inu youkai paused as a thought occurred to him. If Naraku was watching, Sesshoumaru himself may have given the evil hanyou the biggest clue that they were expecting him. Aki never went armed for anything, and males seldom offer weapons to their females unless there would be call to use them. And there was no real way to hide the naked blade of something longer than her arm.

He was an idiot, but at the same time, there was no way he would send her off to possibly face a very dangerous agent of the vile creature that seemed to always be out to get everybody. He just knew Aki was going to tease the hell out of him later for handing her Tenseiga and then instructing her how to keep from tipping off the enemy. He really needed to think more and try to stall Aki less. He could only hoe that when Aki's wit descended upon him no one else would be present to hear it, but his chances were terribly slim.

Now where had his moron of a brother and the wretched cur of a wolf prince gone? It was a bit strange that he hadn't already found them, or at the very least heard the ruckus the two created wherever they went. He should be hearing Inuyasha's cursing by now, whether in pain or frustration. There would be the hollered encouragement from the uninvolved bystanders, and the unmistakable sound of the scenery being demolished as bodies and attacks were thrown about in a haphazard manner.

He didn't see the appeal of such idiotic fighting, neither bastard learned anything from it, as was the usual purpose of sparring, and nothing could be gained from it as the girl being fought over was quite clear in her preferences and thoughts concerning the constant fighting over her.

"What the hell kind of a move was that? That's got to be illegal!" Inuyasha's gruff voice broke the silence of the whitened trees.

"Are you trying to call me a cheater?" a voice Sesshoumaru recognized as the wolf prince's demanded.

"Well if the title fits…" Inuyasha growled.

"You just say that again, dog turd!" Kouga growled back. A curious sound floated to the inu youkai's ears, it reminded him of the sound Aki's book made when she flicked quickly through the pages, but slightly harder.

"I challenge that move," Inuyasha declared with a threatening crack of his knuckles.

"Now that's _got_ to be illegal," Kouga growled.

Sesshoumaru was absolutely floored when the group came into view and the two morons weren't facing off across a space of ten feet. Instead they were huddled close together and hunched over some object or other intently.

"Whose idea was this crap anyway?" Inuyasha growled in frustration.

"Not mine, I'd be just as happy beating you into the ground," Kouga growled in return.

Inuyasha's retort was cut off by the jangle of metal rings as the monk's staff knocked them both on the head. "Gentlemen, you both agreed to this as an alternative to the fight Kagome made you promise not to have," Miroku declared mildly. "Threats made over the game were declared against the rules before the game started."

"Dog turd's just upset because he's losing," Kouga smirked without looking up from the cards.

"Shut up, wimpy wolf! You have to be cheating, I've played this game before and you haven't," Inuyasha growled.

"The only reason you're losing is because you didn't listen to Kagome-sama the last three times she tried to teach it to you," the monk sighed in annoyance, paused and hit Inuyasha for the hell of it.

"Yeah, Kouga wouldn't cheat," Ginta declared.

"He doesn't know how," Hakkaku said to the side.

"What was that?" Kouga chanced a glare at his comrade.

"Hah! I got that one!" Inuyasha grinned in triumph.

"What? No way!" Kouga yelled in disbelief.

Sesshoumaru deliberately crunched the snow under foot behind the monk.

"Not right now, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha grumbled.

Miroku glanced at the taiyoukai behind him and nodded in acknowledgement before pushing to his feet. "They are playing one of Kagome-sama's games," he informed the inu youkai. "She calls it 'War' though there is not much in the way of combative movement."

"Hah, I won that one!" Inuyasha bragged loudly.

"No, you didn't, moron!" Kouga growled and held up the card Inuyasha thought he'd beaten. "This is the high card stupid!"

"No way, this one has more pictures on it, that one only has that little one in the middle," Inuyasha protested.

"Inuyasha," Miroku gave a long-suffering sigh. "The ace is the highest card in the deck." It was obvious the monk had said this more than once.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Inuyasha growled.

Sesshoumaru doubted the hanyou actually knew anything about sense. Speaking of hanyou. "The game will have to be moved indoors," he stated calmly. Nothing in his tone or his words giving away the seriousness of the situation… Well besides how serious he normally sounds.

"Has Aki-nee-san sensed another storm coming?" Hakkaku asked, allowing his attention to slide towards the more interesting conversation.

If Sesshoumaru were prone to telling lies in order to smooth his path, he just might have seized upon the suggested excuse provided by the wolf brother. But that was not his way. "She has sensed, or rather predicted the coming of a different kind of danger," he replied.

Miroku sighed and broke into the game between hanyou and Ookami. "The game shall have to wait, trouble is brewing and we need a plan," he declared after being sure to gather all of Kagome's cards.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha demanded.

"I suspect the threat Aki has sensed has something to do with why the mole youkai attacked her," the monk answered. Sesshoumaru glanced at the purple clad human in surprise. Apparently he would have to raise his opinion of the man's intelligence.

"Huh?" the hanyou remained in the dark. The taiyoukai's estimation of Inuyasha's intelligence was dead on though.

"The mole's were forced – by Naraku – to capture Aki," Miroku explained as patiently as he could force himself to be. "The situation indicates that the driving force behind the moles behavior – Naraku – would return to claim his supposedly captured Aki."

"Naraku!" Kouga growled. "Where is he? Let me at him!"

"Stay out of my damn way!" Inuyasha growled. "Naraku is mine, you can have our left overs!"

Miroku brought his staff down on both their heads swiftly and with more force than he had used before. "Naraku is not an enemy to be taken lightly," he raised his voice a notch, perhaps increased volume would stimulate the thought in their two heads. "We need a plan."

"The human is right," Ginta pleaded with Kouga.

"Every time we go after him without a plan, something bad happens," Hakkaku added.

"We need to gather with everyone in order to use our resources to full advantage," Miroku concluded and turned to head back to the spring heated shelter that was now home base.

Kouga attempted to leave them all in the dust, tired of their more sedate pace and found himself on the ground nursing a bump on his head. The wolf prince turned and glared at the most likely culprit, Inuyasha.

But dog boy wasn't looking at him; in fact practically everybody was staring at the taiyoukai in disbelief. Sesshoumaru flexed his hand and allowed a smirk of satisfaction to cross his face as his joints popped audibly with the movement. "Do not run," the taiyoukai said calmly. "Naraku may not be aware that we know of his approach. You and the whelp may argue or even exchange blows, but give no hint as to the urgency you feel in the situation."

"How could he not know we're expecting him?" Inuyasha demanded. "He knows we're here."

Sesshoumaru gave the hanyou a flat look.

"You mean Naraku may not even know we are here?" Miroku asked for clarification.

"Naraku's main spy willfully denies him the ability to see Aki and most anything she does," Sesshoumaru answered. Kanna was a wonderful ally to have.

"So he very likely cannot see that we are here by our being near her," Miroku observed. "This could work to our advantage."

"Only if the stupid bugs haven't already told Naraku," Inuyasha scoffed.

"Have you seen any of the Saimyoushi?" Miroku asked patiently. "They are not exactly silent."

Inuyasha's ear twitched at the implication. "We might of missed them," he tried to defend his assertion, but his heart wasn't in it. To say they didn't detect them was like admitting he was fallible. It was exceedingly difficult to do that.

"Besides, what makes you so certain the insects are not the ones Aki made friends with," Miroku pointed out as they entered the warmth of home base.

"Because the Saimyoushi don't have the brain capacity to support the concept of friendship," Kagura cut in. "Why are you discussing them?"

Upon spying Kagura and most of the kids inside, Sesshoumaru went ahead and stepped through the barrier, as their presence suggested Aki's errand had been successfully completed.

"Inuyasha believes they may have been sent to spy on us," Miroku answered.

"Wouldn't do him any good," Kagura said with a flick of her fan. "The little bugs won't come this far north, it's too cold for them. He either has to get Kanna to spy for him or one of his other creations, but Kanna is the most effective and usually the most reliable."

"She's the one Aki made friends with," Inuyasha declared needlessly.

"Well, duh!" Kagome rolled her eyes. "Kagura just got done telling us Aki is beyond the eyes of Naraku. What did you think that meant? That Aki was a bee-charmer?"

"Miroku did," Inuyasha informed her.

"I don't think even Aki could manage to turn _all_ of the hell's insects against Naraku," Sango looked at the monk, pondering his stupidity.

Miroku flushed in embarrassment as a few more incredulous stares landed on him.

Azusa tugged at Kagura's kimono sleeve to gain the detachment's attention. "What's taking Aki so long? The bad man's gonna come with her still out there."

"Aki," Sesshoumaru lowered a glare at the rest of the room full of people, "is not here." He made it a statement as the reality of the situation hit him hard.

Aki was still outside, still exposed to the machinations of Naraku and he was not free to aid her.

Kagura nodded, "the kids were playing hide-and-seek, when Aki showed up."

"Only Youta was still hiding," Azusa interrupted. "I'd already found everybody else."

"Youta's a good hider," Rin nodded, "Better even than Jaken-sama."

"When Aki explained why she wanted everybody back inside," Kagura continued, tapping Rin and Azusa gently on the head with her fan for interrupting, "Yumi took off after her brother."

"And Mr. Moley went after her," Shippou added, adopting Fred's name for the grumpy adult.

"Shh, Shippou," Kagome shushed him.

"Aki told us to go ahead without her because she was going to find them and bring them home," Azusa finished and practically dared Kagura to touch her again with a glare.

"Keh!" Inuyasha scoffed. "So let's just go get them!" the hanyou marched past the taiyoukai to the door, ran smack into Aki's barrier and fell on his ass.

"We cannot leave again until Aki drops her barrier," Sesshoumaru informed him.

"That's kind of stupid," Inuyasha growled. "Who makes a barrier that only lets people in?"

"Osuwari!" Kagome yelled before Sesshoumaru could punish his younger sibling for his comment.

"The barrier does not allow just anyone to walk through," Sesshoumaru growled. "Naraku could not enter, nor would most of his latest creationshave the ability either."

"Such a selective barrier," Miroku admired the energies he could sense. "Aki has grown in skill."

"If you have time to stop being impressed, you'd see Aki is heading this way," Sango pointed past Inuyasha to the snow-white world beyond.

"But where's Yumi?" Azusa demanded, seeing only the annoying Youta in Aki's arms. "And where's her dad?"

Just as Azusa finished speaking an object fell out of the sky and landed between Aki and the beckoning safety of the barrier covered doorway, forcing her to keep away from her destination or risk running into it.

And then it moved proving itself to be alive. More than alive it was lethal, as its movements to stand erect revealed the bodies of Yumi and her father at its feet.

Aki shoved Youta behind her and regarded her opponent warily.

It was long limbed and hunched over. Its body was lean and covered in fur so dark it sucked in the light and let none of it free. Its eyes studied her darkly, giving away no clue as to what it was thinking, but at the same time letting her know it could think. It stood taller than her by a couple feet from the bottoms of its clawed padded feet to the tufts of fur at his ears. The beast was all lithe menace and contained evil in one dark furry package; making the situation too much of a coincidence that the creature did not belong to Naraku.

But just to be absolutely certain beyond a shadow of a doubt, Aki asked a stupid question. "Why are you here?"

The beast merely smirked before lunging towards her so quickly she barely had time to push Youta out of the way with her fisted hand around Tenseiga. Her free hand came up to push the monster past them with his own momentum. The creature still managed to draw blood on her vulnerable shoulder and his deceptively soft looking fur bit into her hand, rupturing the skin.

Her opponent chuckled as he turned, the movement purposely slow to throw her off. "And with the drawing of blood you come under my power," the beast spoke with a deep voice that tickled the ear and caressed things lower and more liquid. "Oh beautiful desert, come a little bit closer."

Aki tightly fisted her injured hand, using the sharp increase of pain to combat the allure of the beast's voce. She gently guided Youta behind her as she slowly put her back to the doorway to safety. She eyed the creature watching her move to face off with him. "Youta," she whispered. "I want you to run for the door when I tell you to. Don't look back. Can you do that?"

The terrified mole youkai squeezed the hand holding the Tenseiga beside him, too afraid to speak.

"Come now pet," the best smirked some more. "No need to protect the nuisance. Taking a second desert is bad form."

"When I say go, you run," Aki flexed her injured hand, spreading her sharpened talons. She'd have to get close to the beast to distract him sufficiently. "Ready," her muscles bunched, ready to leap towards the beast. "Go!"

Youta darted towards home; so intent on making the door he barely noticed when he tripped over his sister's ankle. He kept running until just before he crossed the threshold and the overwhelming sound of screaming distracted him.

He felt safe enough to risk a look back towards the nightmare and Aki. What he saw and heard sucked the strength out of his knees and he fell with his back pressed against the outside of the doorframe.

Aki had rushed toward the beast determined to garner his full attention. She brought the Tenseiga up to block the beast's reaching arm and driven her claws into the flesh of his chest under the fur before darting out of reach.

"Little desert should not harm its diner," the creature growled with pain. "Too bad the diner's blood is poison to the desert."

Aki shook her bleeding hand of the excess fluid she had collected from wounding the beast. Then she purified was remained on her claws with a burst of miko power. "I think I'll live," she declared and shoved some loose hair behind her ear. "I'm not sure I can say the same for you."

"Such nonsense little pet," the beast chuckled, the sound petting nerve endings a voice should never be able to touch. He opened his mouth, as if to continue speaking and a panicked look crept over his face. The beast screamed in disbelief, denial, and pain, tearing apart whatever nerve had previously been touched.

It was this sound that had caught Youta's attention. The sight that followed left him with nightmares to torment him for looking back.

Truly the child was spared a more horrific sight because the beast's fur was so thick and dark. Youta couldn't see the blood when it started seeping through the creature's skin, couldn't tell those dark eyes were leaking something other than tears.

What he did see was the beast writhing and screaming in pain. He saw the snow on the ground turn red as Aki looked on without a visible change in her expression. And Youta saw when the furry body stopped moving and lay still in the churned, stained snow.

"Sadly it appears your dinner is poisonous too," Aki sighed as she stepped closer to check the best for life.

Before Aki had a chance to stand another beast leapt out of the trees and into sight, headed straight for her. She looked up just before this one would have killed her. A bright missile cut through the air and forced the beast back and out of existence before its outstretched claws could do more than tear a single line from the tip of her chin, missing her throat, down to the top of her breast, staining her borrowed kimono and the snow at her feet with more blood.

"Ho?" Naraku's voice shattered the silence left in the wake of two beasts' death cries. "A miko protecting a cursed youkai, truly you have fallen far Kikyou. Not even Tsubaki went so low."

"It is impossible for a manipulative bastard to understand the full scope of what it is to be miko and what is required for evil," Kikyou declared darkly. She didn't like the vile hanyou anywhere near Aki with the way the woman tended to collect injuries left and right.

"Your toys are becoming quite boring," Aki cut in. "One would almost think you weren't even trying to win anymore."

"If they had succeeded in sucking your soul from your body," Naraku growled menacingly, "I would have won."

"Oh please," Aki scoffed. "You expected the fuzz ball twins to beat me? As if," she dismissed the idea with a toss of her head. "And here I thought you weren't stupid, apparently I gave you too much credit. Wherever you dumped your brain with the rest of your leavings, you'd best go retrieve it before you do something so moronic you piss me off." She was asking for it and she knew it, so it was no surprise when he stabbed at her with a branch-like tentacle.

Aki side stepped it and slammed her fist down on it, breaking a good portion off. It melted and began to sail through the air toward Naraku under the power of the Shikon no Kakera the evil hanyou had on his person, proving what Aki had known all along, that this was the real bastard she was dealing with.

The former English tutor whipped the blade of Tenseiga through the amorphous blob floating past her, cutting the semi-living mass before it could reconnect with any part of its host. Surprisingly, Sesshoumaru's inherited fang converted the pieces back into the lower youkai they had originally been before Naraku absorbed them. The newly freed youkai fled the area and the sense of miko and powerful youkai, their natural survival instincts kicking in.

"Well would you look at that," Aki held Naraku's gaze levelly. "Looks like your bait has gone missing. They certainly didn't run from you in the beginning did they?"

Naraku glared at her even as his mind connected the dots and concluded she had proved, if only to herself that his heart had been removed for it had been the evil filled heart of Onigumo that had birthed him. He was beginning to realize cutting his heart out of the equation might be more of a liability than a benefit.

"Truly Naraku," Kikyou observed evenly, drawing his attention. "You are exposing your weaknesses."

"He cannot hide them from me," Aki declared, not taking her eyes off the bastard hiding behind his barrier.

"You're one to talk," the hanyou snarled then stabbed out at Youta where he still huddled in shock and horror.

Aki barely made it in time to save the boy. Once she laid a hand on the branchy limb Naraku had attempted to kill the mole with she forced purifying energy in it, allowing the power to climb up the arm to where Naraku broke it off himself to prevent incurring serious damage to his person.

Kikyou released the arrow she had knocked back and sent it soaring into the space just vacated by the retreating hanyou. "Coward," the dead miko dismissed him and lowered her bow.

Aki rolled her eyes at the other woman's assessment and turned to check Youta over. The boy still hadn't gotten up. She worried that he might have hurt himself when he fell or perhaps gone into shock, though she was one to talk about injury.

"Are you all right Youta?" Aki asked as she leaned to touch him and check him over.

"Don't kill me!" the stunned boy snapped alive when he saw the female about to touch him with the same bloodied hand that had struck down the beast and tore a piece off the hanyou. "I don't want to die!" the boy started to shake in terror and Inuyasha, still stuck on the other side of Aki's sound permeable barrier started to curse the little brat out when he saw the look on Aki's face.

Aki's expression showed nothing of pain or even sadness, she only wore her smile, tired as it was. Slowly she backed away from Youta, ignoring Inuyasha's impossible threats and invectives that attempted to deafen anyone within range.

When she was even with the spot Yumi and her father lay, Aki turned on her heel and ran out of sight with no warning, dropping the unneeded Tenseiga as she left.

"You fucking brat! I'm going to pound you into the ground at your feet!" Inuyasha bellowed, pressing against the prickly energy holding him and everyone else inside. Suddenly the hanyou fell forward on his face and lay there a moment in surprise.

Inuyasha's surprise didn't last long before he leapt to his feet, intent on meting out some pain.

"Osuwari!" Kagome yelled before pushing past the red filled crater she'd created. "The problem is between Aki and Youta, leave it alone." The miko-in-training walked on until she reached the side of Yumi across from Kikyou.

"The boy could use some sense being pounded into him!" Jaken declared, ever ready to condemn the actions of others.

"Jaken," Sesshoumaru began sternly, "be silent." He strode to the ground that cradled his sword to collect the weapon. His eyes stared in the direction his intended had disappeared, knowing it would be fruitless to chase after her now.

"I suppose we shall have to bury them now," Miroku sighed sadly.

"Poor Yumi-chan," Sango murmured.

"They're not dead," Kagome announced with certainty. "They're still breathing." She turned back to Yumi, continuing to check the child over for injuries. "She just has a few scratches and bruises."

"The father too," Kagura reported.

"But they do not have their souls," Kikyou informed them. "They will not live long."

"Can't their souls be returned?" Kagome asked absently brushing Yumi's hair out of her face.

"If we could find them in time," Miroku shrugged.

Sango drew her sword and approached the still body of Aki's attacker, the one Aki had dispatched personally. "The beast spoke of eating Aki for desert, indicating he had already eaten a meal."

"Except there's nothing missing on Yumi and her father for him to have eaten,' Kagome shook her head.

"Except their souls," Kouga observed surprising everyone by not being too stupid to catch on.

Sango stabbed her blade into the corpse and cut open the torso purposely. "Lost souls found," she breathed upon glimpsing the glow inside.

"You think your snake thingies can bring them on home?" Fred asked the miko.

Kikyou glared at the ghost, "Why are you not with Aki?"

"She hasn't stopped moving yet, and I doubt she will for a long while," Fred sighed as Kikyou's shinidamachuu cradled the souls of the two mole youkai and deposited them in the proper bodies. "She hadn't really known how her family died, not the nitty-gritty details of it. She's probably going to take a while to absorb what she saw."

"Why would she have done this?" Sango wondered aloud as the children had a cheerful reunion with Yumi, a reunion that quickly dissolved into a scolding session for Youta.

"Perhaps she was testing it?" Miroku suggested pensively. "Do we know how Aki is supposed to find out when her curse will be gone?"

"No," Sesshoumaru answered shortly. Aki was likely reeling form more than the thought of her family writhing in pain. If she was testing the curse, then she was hoping it was gone. When the curse had claimed the facsimile of life Naraku was producing these days, that fragile hope was crushed.

The death of hope, this specific hope was going to wreak havoc with his near future if he didn't get the chance to fix it.


	11. Soul Food

**Soul Food**

Aki's body was darting through the trees without the full attention of her brain. She was still trying really hard not to think about how her day had been developing. So much had happened her brain had refused to understand it all as it happened and she was putting off looking back in favor of not thinking at all and physical movement.

It was a very freeing feeling to just run without destination, to feel the wind rushing past her skin and through her hair without hindrance. Even better was the feeling that the wind could sweep all the bad things from her mind so that she could escape them, if only for a little while.

Aki ran until she ran out of land and was forced to stop or swim in the freezing cold waters. She stared out at the choppy waters; incomprehension shimmered in her eyes. It was clear she wasn't really seeing what was in front of her.

Abruptly she let out an incoherent yell, expelling the sound from her soul with a force that echoed across the waves. When she ran out of breath the sound faded from hearing leaving her panting in the static sounds of the waves and wind.

A blast of moisture filled icy air whipped her frozen hair around her face as she turned and started to run in the opposite direction. Again she ran until the land ran out, this time the cry she let out robbed her of her voice. She fell tiredly back in the snow and stared up at the fathomless sky, simply focusing on slowing her heart rate and catching her breath until there was nothing but stillness within and without to cradle her softly.

Sadly the stillness could not guard against actual thought and memory. The moment both attempted to shatter the small comfort Aki had derived from her physical exertion, she was back on her feet and running again.

This time she stopped before the ground did for the sudden desire to cuddle up with her teddy bear in her apartment struck her strongly. Aki would have turned to run straight there despite her breath coming out in gasps or her muscles twitching with fatigue and chill but for the realization that her bag was back where she started and she _would not_ go home without it.

With a sigh Aki turned in the direction that would take her back to where she started.

In the home of the mole youkai, Fred was explaining why Aki was bound to come back, once again.

"I still don't understand why Ai would come back here just for a stupid bag," Shippou declared with a shake of his head.

Fred rolled his eyes in frustration bordering on rage. The kitsune refused to accept the very basic concept that certain things could be held more precious than life for some people.

"If Sango were to accidentally leave Hiraikotsu behind," Miroku tried to use an example to better explain it to the kit, "You would expect her to return to retrieve it, wouldn't you?"

"Well yeah," Shippou replied. "Sango is a human and her life depends on her weapons sometimes, but Aki isn't human anymore and her bag isn't a weapon."

"Don't be too sure about that,' Fred muttered darkly, growing exceedingly weary of the conversation.

"Perhaps Kagome were to accidentally leave the shards behind," Sango tried only to be drowned out by Kagome and Inuyasha.

"I would never let that happen!"

"That wouldn't happen!" Their shouts completely derailed the example and Sango sighed at the wasted effort.

"I said perhaps," Sango protested. "I just don't want to listen to Fred explain it one more time when it makes perfect sense to me."

"I still don't get it!" Shippou whined Illustrating Sango's point for her.

"I don't see why the boy has to understand why Aki will return,' Kikyou declared coolly. "Is it not enough that her usual stalker understands her behavior well enough to give a reliable predication as o what she will do next?"

"I am not her stalker," Fred rolled his eyes. "The only reason you say that is because you're jealous your stalker isn't as cool as me."

"I don't have a stalker," Kikyou scoffed.

"Sure you do," Fred smugly replied. "Let me give you a hint, he's hairy and full of himself and has been fixated on you for over fifty years."

"Well that's one way to look at it," Kagome laughed. "I mean if you take out the part with the Shikon no Tama, it's pretty standard stalking."

"With a serial killer twist," the ghost shrugged. "Hence the trying to kill her three times."

"When did Inuyasha try to kill Kikyou three times?" Azusa asked, unfamiliar with the finer details of the history between Kikyou and the birth of Naraku.

"I'm not her stalker!" Inuyasha bellowed.

"At least not on Tuesdays," Fred smirked. "Or every other Thursday."

"But the rest of the time is a different matter all together," Kagome added, half jokingly. She didn't want to seem too serious else someone might point out that she could potentially fit the description herself.

"What was that?" Inuyasha demanded.

Kagome beamed innocent as can be as Sango quickly replied for her. "Nothing!" the taijiya smiled brightly. "Just a little joke."

"It didn't sound that funny," the hanyou grumbled.

"Because the joke was on you," Miroku muttered to the side and smiled innocently when Inuyasha's suspicious gaze landed on him.

"I asked a simple question and no one has answered! When did Inuyasha try to kill Kikyou three times?" Azusa demanded.

"The person they were originally talking about in reference to Kikyou being killed was Naraku," Sango explained to the little girl.

"The bad man?" Azusa gasped.

"He tired to hurt Rin too," Rin patted the miko's cold clay hand. "But Kohaku was Aki's friend and didn't want to do it."

"Aki knows Kohaku?" Sango gaped.

"Aki knows everybody," Fred scoffed. "There is no way you haven't already figured that out yet."

"She didn't know Ayame," Kagome pointed out.

"Everybody connected with Naraku," Fred amended.

"So she knows his mom and dad and his neighbors and the guy who built the house he was born in…" Shippou listed.

"Fine, Aki doesn't know anybody and I'm exaggerating, happy now?" Fred grumbled.

"No, I still don't get why Aki would come back here for that stupid bag!" Shippou shouted.

"Not that again," Inuyasha groaned.

"Shippou, lets say you accidentally left behind part of that fabulous outfit," Fred steamrolled over the kit's interruptions. "Nothing important like pant or anything, but maybe you left behind something small that you would notice was missing. And say you knew almost exactly where it was when you noticed it was missing. Wouldn't you go back for it?"

"Of course," Shippou replied. "My mom made this."

"That's why," Fred nodded.

"Aki's mom made the bag?" Shippou asked.

"No, Aki's grandmother made some of the things in the bag," the ghost replied.

"Oh, well that makes sense then," Shippou shrugged.

Fred wanted nothing more than to bash the little inquisitive fluff ball's head in, or at least make him really uncomfortable. Miroku gave him a look that was both commiserating and warning in one. The monk certainly understood where the dead man was coming from.

Kikyou distracted them by picking up the forlorn bag in question, carefully concealing the effort to heft the obscenely heavy thing.

"What are you doing?" Fred demanded.

"What will Aki do once she retrieves this bag?" the miko asked a question of her own.

"Probably go home," the ghost crossed his arms.

"And then what?" Kikyou demanded. "She was wounded. Will she seek the aid of a healer?"

"Probably not right away," Fred replied. Depending on the seriousness of the damage, it was likely she wouldn't go at all.

"Unacceptable," Kikyou declared beginning to disperse some of the items from the bag. "Aki will not leave without this bag and it's contents, so we will simply have to hide them all."

"What? Why?" Inuyasha demanded.

"If she will not leave, then she will stay," Sango pointed out.

"Thereby allowing us to ensure she is properly cared for," Miroku finished. "You are quite devious when you choose to be." This was great! He wasn't the only manipulative holy figure of their acquaintance. Even better, the next time Inuyasha tried to resort to his "Kikyou was so great" spiel, he could interrupt for Kagome's sake with the facts of reality, which would of course score him points with Sango.

"Some just require extra effort to see reason," the miko scoffed.

"Well Aki is one of those sometimes," Miroku agreed.

Fred laughed at that. "Aki sees reason better than most you people. She's not tangled up in triangles and high drama, epic battles between good and evil or family disputes. She's completely free of all those things that get in the way of reason. Why can't she be allowed to nurse her wounds in private?"

"Because she won't do it," Kikyou replied shortly.

"Aki went two years between the death of her family and meting you," Fred declared. "In that time you don't think she was never hurt or injured? She can't even go one day without hurting herself in some way shape or form!"

"You mean to tell me that Aki intentionally hurts herself?" Kagome gasped in horror.

"No! Aki's just accident prone, you dunce!" Fred exclaimed. "She's the queen of paper cuts! Czarina of bruises and broken nails! Empress of random office injuries!"

"Aki is _not_ suffering from a paper cut!" Kagome protested.

"What's a paper cut?" Shippou asked.

"Hell if I know," Inuyasha replied absently as he watched Kagome argue with Fred.

"I didn't say a paper cut was the worst she'd suffered," Fred corrected the teenager. "I was just illustrating the injuries Aki would collect before people decided she was the root of all evil. The she would end up playing chicken with anonymous cars while she was on foot. She was thrown down the stairs a couple times and there was that one stalker that tried to shoot her. Good thing that happened after I died, otherwise he would have succeeded."

"What?" Kagome couldn't believe it.

"Yeah she packed up and moved to Japan after that," the ghost shrugged. "She was kind of leaning that direction any way."

"Poor Aki," Kagome sniffed.

"People suck," Fred lounged boredly in mid air, his being all dead made it rather easy. "Stupid people, most especially."

"What's a car?" Shippou demanded.

"Something a lot bigger, heavier and faster than a human," Inuyasha replied.

"Why would they want to hurt Aki?" Rin asked with worry.

"Doesn't matte," Fred smirked. "She lived through it and it's over now. Ai made it through everything all on her own, she can handle a few scratches and a little more blind ignorance."

"Yeah Youta," Yumi scoffed and smacked her brother on the back of his head. The boy had been trying really hard not to draw attention to himself once Yumi had first laid into him about his behavior.

No amount of protesting was going to exonerate hi in the eyes of his sister, nor in the eyes of anyone else, he feared. He couldn't help it if they weren't smart enough to figure out what he had. Aki was the boogieman that would kill you painfully with one touch. She could call the blood from your veins until there was nothing left.

Youta knew what he'd seen and nobody could change that. The truth was real. His dad would agree, if the old mole still had the means with which to agree.

The adult mole youkai was nothing more than a happy, drooling, humming, barely conscious vegetable and Youta very much believed that was Aki's fault too. That rotten no good, horrible monster! Everything had just gone wrong from the moment they first heard about her, and Yumi was already so deeply under that bad woman's spell there was almost no hope for her.

When her bratty brother failed to respond to her taunting or her violence on his person, Yumi just shrugged and went back to chatting with her friends and listening to the grown ups conversing about Aki. Boys were weird on the best of days and her brother was the strangest of them all.

"If Aki is coming back," Inuyasha broke into the inane babble the others had fallen into, "when is she coming?'

"Well here, let me do some arcane calculations and pull an answer from the grim reaper's hat," Fred began sarcastically. "Aki isn't _that_ predictable. You might be, but most women aren't."

"I am not predictable!" Inuyasha protested, while his friends pointedly looked everywhere but at him. He did sort of have this three-day limit thing, then there was the PMS like grouchiness once a month, and that was pretty regular. That's not even mentioning his fighting words, style and defense mechanisms, eating habits, etc. Inuyasha was as predictable as Kagome's timer and about as obnoxious.

"Who cares about when?" Kikyou ignored Inuyasha's noise. "Worrying about when gets nothing done."

"So?" Inuyasha huffed.

"So stash these somewhere," Kagome ordered the hanyou as she shoved something in his hands.

Inuyasha dropped the item like it burned him. "No way! I won't do anything with Aki's stuff!" he growled. "Aki will skin you guys alive for messin' with her stuff!"

"Don't be silly," Kagome reproved him.

"It's not silly," Inuyasha retorted. "You mess with Aki's stuff, you mess with Aki's family."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Shippou scoffed. "Nobody can be family with a bunch of stuff that's not even alive!"

Inuyasha bashed the kit on the head. Kagome immediately invoked the spell around his neck for the hanyou's lapse in behavior.

"What Inuyasha means," Sango attempted to translate, "is that Aki associates memories of her family with the items in her bag, the same way Yumi associates her mother's pots and pans with the memory of her mother, or the way you associate the tricks you know with whomever taught them to you."

"I don't think Aki-sama would actually hurt us for hiding her things," Yumi declared with Rin and Azusa in agreement.

"Well, maybe she wouldn't hurt you," Fred rolled his eyes, "but everybody else is game for violence. Especially if Aki knows they had prior knowledge of how she would feel about people rifling through her things."

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at the sudden pregnant silence. Apparently the ghost's subtle threat had sunk in without serious need to be reinforced as Kagome instantly scooped up the items Inuyasha had dropped and put them back in Aki's bag.

"I'm still hiding the bag," Kikyou insisted stubbornly.

"Fine, but you take your not life in your hands that way," Fred shrugged.

The undead miko rolled her eyes mockingly. "I fear nothing to do with Aki."

"Well that is very clear," Sango muttered. "The question is, do you respect her?" The conversation aroused by this question was interrupted by the spontaneous disappearance of the resident ghost partaking in it.

Sesshoumaru glided gracefully to the door to open it. Before he stepped out into the snow, he glanced back at the miko speakingly. It was clear he expected her to keep the rest of the group inside.

Aki sat curled up in the snow at the edge of the red stain left by the beast. Her pale gold hair glistened with ice crystals and her face appeared to be carved from marble. The open wounds on her shoulder, face and chest had frozen closed, the red ice hardly standing out against her overall ice-like stillness.

She seemed to contemplate the red puddle of snow as though it contained a serious meaning beyond simply indicating the death of something defeated.

"Aki?" the semi-transparent human asked softly for her attention.

"I'm sorry Fred," she answered, her voice eerily empty.

"For what?" the ghost wasn't accepting anything until he was certain what the apology was about.

"For not dying," Aki replied. "For the curse my friendship brought to you. If I had just died, the curse would have ended with me." Her eyes turned glassy with tears she refused to shed. "And none of you would have died in so much pain."

"I didn't die like that Aki," Fred reminded her. "There was no screaming or writhing or blood seeping through my pores, remember?"

"Maybe not you, but they – " Aki shook her head before Fred cut her off.

"They probably didn't die as painfully as that either," the ghost wouldn't let her finish the thought. "You weren't related by blood."

"But what about the blood?"

"What about it?" Fred demanded insistently. "There's no proof that they suffered."

"Maybe not, but if I had died they wouldn't have!" Aki growled. "You wouldn't have."

"Don't be too sure about that," Fred scoffed. "If you had died, who would have kept me awake on all those late night road trips? And what about all the people you've saved because you didn't die? You think Azusa would have lived if you hadn't chased Naraku off? What about Shippou and Rin? Nobody else would have even realized they were in danger until it was too late. There's an entire youkai community that would still be starving to death if you hadn't been there."

"What of this Sesshoumaru had not you been there to tend him in his weakness?" the inu youkai knelt in the snow beside her and brushed her hair behind her ear tenderly. "You think your family, who loved you so much, would trade your life for even a moment more of their own? I think you know them very ill if you believe they would sacrifice you to protect themselves, even if it were painful. This Sesshoumaru knows he would not."

Aki's tears finally broke free of her control and spilled down her cheeks. Sesshoumaru drew her close to let her tears soak into the silk over his heart.

The taiyoukai glanced up at the ghost intending to direct him towards the warm indoors only to find the dead human gesturing with his thumb and already most of the way inside.

"All right guys," Fred clapped his hands soundlessly. "Time to disperse."

"What?" Kagome demanded.

"Shut up, Kagome," Inuyasha growled gently. "After the last few days, Sesshoumaru is going to demand that he be allowed to tend all of her wounds personally."

"You mean he – " Sango began with a bit of a notion as to what Inuyasha could mean. Inu youkai had a special way to heal their mates, and while Aki was not currently Sesshoumaru's mate his instincts still viewed her as such.

"Yep," Inuyasha cut her off shortly.

"Come on Kagome, we need to pack fast," the demon slayer dragged the teenager in to action.

"We can only be thankful that the wolves have already left," Miroku commented earning agreement from the hanyou.

"What about us?" Yumi asked. It was quite clear to her, home was not the place for them anymore.

"You could try contacting the youkai community Aki helped out a while back," Fred suggested. "It's kind of near Kaede's village.

"We could probably take you," Kagome added.

"What?" Inuyasha bellowed sharply.

"I don't see why not," Miroku began blandly. "Inuyasha only said we couldn't return until we found Naraku."

"We found Naraku, so we can take a break," Sango nodded.

"That is not what I said!" Inuyasha growled.

"So it's settled then," Kagome nodded. "Come on Yumi, I'll help you pack." Inuyasha's further protests were disregarded and ineffectual.

Kikyou was ready to leave long before the shard hunters and approached Kagome with her hand held out. "Wake these before Aki accuses me of holding Childish prejudices and inane fears of change and the future or something."

Kagome gaped at the pile of Shikon shards sparkling in her palm, and then she shook her head of her surprise. Seriously, where did she think those five shards of Aki's torment had got to? Outer space? The dead miko promptly turned and left without further words.

"Come on already," Inuyasha growled impatient to leave the place, even with the added aggravation of the mole youkai.

"What about Rin and Azusa?" Yumi asked. Inuyasha blinked at the two little girls watching them from beside Sesshoumaru's servant.

"Bring them too," he shrugged. It would be no place for children once Sesshoumaru brought Aki inside.

"You most certainly will not!" Jaken squawked before finding himself trussed up and gagged.

"All right then," Inuyasha sighed. "Let's go."

Sesshoumaru watched as the others began to disappear from sight. It surprised him how quickly they had all managed to grasp the situation.

He lifted Aki into his arms and stood up carefully.

"What happens now?" Aki sniffled, well aware that their company had deserted them, but too tired to be suspicious.

"Now we go inside and warm you up," he answered mildly. "Then I will look to your wounds."

Aki sighed and closed her eye in exhaustion. She knew what he meant. "Sesshoumaru," she began as sternly as she could manage.

"A small reprieve," he cut her off. "Nothing to completely break with our promise. Before you drive me crazy with yet another injury on your person."

"All right," she let it go, it was for his sanity after all.

**mH** I meant to post this morning before I had to be into work, but apparently my note from last yesterday just didn't take so I had to wait until after work because I didn't have time to re-type one this morning. Stupid bots!

So yeah, I'm changing things up a little. The Author's note is at the end of the chapter. Go ahead and skip it if you think you can stand being in the dark about my interrupted schedule.

That's right, there will be a break again... and it will be at least through Valentines day (inventory at work) because I still haven't finished chapter 5 of _The Bindings of Conscience _(part 6). and there's still one more chapter after that at least before It's done. In total, that will be cahpter 57 and 58 if you're counting. But guess what, WE're heading into the home stretch. Part 7, _Flying Nonsense_ is all about wrapping things up and should be something of a breeze to write. It's always easier to tie up loose ends than to build up to a climactic event.

I'm pretty sure you guys are happy about that... and if you're not then at least Sesshoumaru is. (for the moment) He just got some. I bet he just loves me since Rumiko Takahashi never let him get any when she was in control.

In any case, until next time (whenever the hell that may be...) enjoy rereading things!


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